Theory-Software Translation Workshop - US Edition in New Orleans, LA (February 4-5, 2019)

The Theory-Software Translation workshop (jointly organized by researchers from the US and the UK) aims to explore the potential for a new multidisciplinary research area of Theory-Software Translation. This workshop will investigate the current challenges and barriers to the effective articulation of theory in software and the effective usage of the outputs of computation to modify and generate scientific theory. Theory-Software Translation research will contribute to the evidence-base for research software infrastructure strategy and practice at a local (individual/group), institutional (organization), national, and international level; identify cross-cutting challenges for computational research; and advance the techniques we use to perform it. The workshop (along with a UK workshop expected later in 2019) will produce a roadmap of research challenges and recommendations for research software engineering policy, underpinned by an evidence-based report. The US and UK together recognize and develop the profile of the software used in research, and the important role of those who are creating it.

The workshop has two aims.

1. Bring together key individuals with research interests relevant to Theory-Software Translation and those actively engaged in doing it, to map out the area, and identify primary research challenges.
2. Start building a detailed, evidence-based report (dataset) that can be used as a foundation for understanding these challenges, by treating breakout sessions as focus groups and fully transcribing the discussion.

Agenda

The agenda of the workshop includes a small number of invited talks, short introductory lightning talks from all participants, and a large amount of participatory breakout sessions, in which small groups will examine the current challenges of Theory-Software Translation from technical and policy perspectives. Facilitators will record the discussions in each breakout session to allow the organizers to thematically analyze them to produce a report describing the current landscape. The report will also contain abstracts from workshop participants, a research roadmap, and policy recommendations.

Organizers

• Steven R. Brandt (Louisiana State University)
• Jeffrey C. Carver (University of Alabama)
• Anshu Dubey (Argonne National Laboratory)
• Sandra Gesing (University of Notre Dame)
• Robert Haines (University of Manchester)
• Caroline Jay (University of Manchester)
• Daniel S. Katz (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

Participants

• Roscoe A. Bartlett, Sandia National Laboratories
• Thomas Cheatham, III, University of Utah
• Rinku Gupta, Argonne National Laboratory
• James Howison, School of Information, University of Texas at Austin
• Hans Johansen, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• Dmitry Liakh, Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
• Dominic C. Marcello, Center for Computation & Technology, Louisiana State University
• Vitali Morozov, Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, Argonne National Laboratory
• Brian O’Shea, Department of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering, Department of Physics and Astronomy, and National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Michigan State University
• James C. Phillips, NCSA Blue Waters Project Office, University of Illinois
• Katherine Riley, Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, Argonne National Laboratory
• Matthew Turk, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Hubertus van Dam, Brookhaven National Laboratory
• Hui Wan, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory