Collaborative Research: CyberTraining: Implementation: Medium: Broadening and Deepening the Impact of INTERSECT

Developing a science and engineering workforce trained in research software development is essential for advancing research in scientific and engineering domains. It is important that the researchers who create the software that will drive tomorrow’s critical scientific discoveries receive training in appropriate software engineering disciplines, to not only make them more productive, but also to make the software they create more reliable, sustainable, and secure. This project (INTERSECT 2.0) addresses the knowledge gap by providing targeted training on research software development and engineering best practices to research software developers who already possess an intermediate knowledge of software development. INTERSECT 2.0 training activities bring together Research Software Engineer (RSE) instructors from multiple U.S. institutions to leverage the growing RSE community’s capabilities, knowledge, and expertise. The project continually refines, updates, and extends the training material to ensure that it stays current with best practices. An open-source platform is used to disseminate the training material, to allow for continued engagement with and reuse of that material across the RSE-trainer community. The focus on community fosters and connects RSE practitioner-instructors from across the country, to not only take advantage of the knowledge of multiple institutions but also to build and strengthen the community of this group of software professionals, providing these professionals increased access to peer support, resource and knowledge sharing, networking opportunities, and continued growth of an RSE pipeline – all crucial elements to address the cyberinfrastructure research workforce development needs of the future. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.