First INTERSECT Content Development Workshop

As part of the NSF-funded INnovative Training Enabled by a Research Software Engineering Community of Trainers (INTERSECT) project, we held the first RSE Workshop to begin developing content for the INTERSECT-sponsored RSE Bootcamps. This first workshop, held at Princeton University, included 16 participants who were active RSEs, RSE trainers, managers of RSEs, and academics working with and studying research software. The goal of this 1.5 day workshop was to begin generating the content for training modules on key topics for intermediate to advanced research software developers.

As the focus of the workshop was content generation, we divided into smaller groups to design and begin building content for five important topics: Software Design, Software Testing, Working Collaboratively, Packing and Distribution, and Deployment. Over the course of the 1.5 day workshop, each group began by defining learning objectives, brainstorming the content that belongs in each unit, outlining that content into a coherent flow, and then populating the outlines with content. Each group made plans for finishing or continuing the work after the conclusion of the workshop. After these initial groups wrap up, each module will be available for comment and contribution by the larger community once the first version is complete.

Following other successful models, including The Carpentries, we organized the topics into a series of lessons hosted in GitHub repositories. At this time, three groups have begun to populate their repositories: Software Design, Software Testing, and Packaging and Distribution. The next steps to continue developing the content for these modules include: virtual meetings, asynchronous content generation, and additional workshops. We are also planning to hold the first INTERSECT-sponsored RSE Bootcamp in Summer 2023. If you are interested in contributing to the modules, contact us for more details.