CERN software developers gathering in September
Hundreds of developers work on many different projects at CERN – from data analysis to beam operations and administrative applications. As of this September, they will have an opportunity to meet each other at the newly established Developers@CERN Forum.
“We go to conferences elsewhere but we hardly ever meet here at CERN, where we all work on our own separate software projects,” says José Carlos Luna, a member of the IT department and one of the organisers of the first Developers@CERN Forum. Indeed, although several CERN departments have software developers working in their teams, there is no proper “community” built around them.
The first Developers@CERN Forum will be held on 28 and 29 September. The event is being organised by a few developers from the IT department, together with colleagues from the GS and EN departments. Its main scope is to reach out to all the departments in an effort to bring all CERN’s software developers together to discuss common issues. This first forum will take place in the IT Amphitheatre and the Training Centre. “The programme will include presentations and workshops by colleagues working on various software development projects,” explains Marwan Khelif, member of the organising team. “The topic for this first event will be 'Software Quality', with a focus on testing techniques and reliability. This is a topic of interest for all the developers, regardless of their specific fields of activity.”
Anyone interested in submitting a presentation or a topic for a workshop should follow this link. “We are eagerly awaiting contributions from colleagues throughout CERN,” says Sebastian Łopieński, another member of the organising team. “The whole idea is to exchange best practices and solutions to ensure that our code is highly reliable. Everyone is working on various techniques but so far there has been little opportunity to meet and share experiences. We hope that this event is filling the gap.”
Conceived in a similar way to the CAPPS initiative, the Developers@CERN Forum will be held a few times per year to keep the community connected. “Both initiatives aim to bring together those facing similar problems,” confirms Łopieński. “However, while there are maybe ten people working part-time on mobile apps at CERN, there are certainly hundreds and probably more than a thousand people at CERN who develop software at least part-time. So the scale of the two events is different.”
With this initiative, the organisers hope to involve a large proportion of CERN’s developers. If you are interested in contributing or just participating as a member of the audience, please visit the dedicated website or e-mail the organisers.
