Computer Science Colloquium - Colin Venters, University of Huddersfield

Title: Excuse me but...your Software Smells: A Case Study of Software Quality in High-Energy Physics

Abstract:

Modern scientific and engineering research is highly dependent on software. From understanding DNA supercoiling to the development of autonomic frameworks for urban traffic management, research software has been critical in driving forward advances in research in the field of computational science and engineering (CSE). This has resulted in calls for research software to be classified as a first-class, experimental scientific instrument. The field of Research Software Engineering (RSE) aims to facilitate the creation of well-designed, reliable, efficient software systems to solve research problems. There is little empirical evidence to demonstrate that research software is well designed, if at all. This talk presents the results of a case study into the sustainability of High- Energy Physics software systems for the ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus) experiment at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), which suggests that fundamental research software has suboptimal software design, accidental complexity, high levels of technical debt, code smells, and a significant risk of software entropy. The consequence of this is a pathway to stagnation and decay, and ultimately to the death of essential research software investment.

Venters is a Reader in Software Engineering. He is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Sustainable Computing and Course Leader for Software Engineering at the University of Huddersfield. He is also a visiting academic associated with the ATLAS project at CERN. He has 20+ years’ experience of theoretical and applied software engineering, and has substantial practical experience in the design, development, refactoring, and evaluation of research software applications and tools in a range of application domains. Since joining the University of Huddersfield in 2012, his research has focused on architectural-level reasoning for pre-system understanding, and post-system maintenance and evolution in the design of sustainable software systems. He is a founding member of the Sustainability Alliance and co-author of Karlskrona Manifesto for Sustainability Design whose principles have been endorsed by 200+ International signatories. The impact of this work has served as a focal point for establishing a common ground for the international software engineering research community, to discuss the implications and what steps need to be taken to address sustainability in their roles as educators, researchers, and software practitioners, resulting in new initiatives to develop a Body of Knowledge for Software Sustainability, and how sustainability can be integrated into ISO/IEC 29110 and the ACM Computing Curriculum.