Often fundamental research in areas such as HCI, data analytics, machine learning, VR, humanitarian systems, public health, engineering psychology etc. requires the creation of significant software artifacts in order to collect data, create an experimental testbed, provide an intervention for experimental participants, or to increase the impact of their research on a larger community. However, the researchers may not have expertise or interest in doing significant software engineering work. And those efforts are often tangential to (and distracting from) their basic research goals. The process of designing, developing, testing, deploying, and supporting software is complex and can be resource intensive. Therefore, researchers often seek out software developers both inside of and outside of the university to build mobile applications, websites, and enterprise software solutions. Problems and conflict can arise as the researcher and the developer attempt to scope the project, agree on a budget, collaboratively design and implement the software, and then continue to support it over time. And, ultimately, the process of creating and the requirements of a software artifact designed to achieve research goals can be very different than that of a commercial software product. In this Think Tank, academic faculty and applied research faculty from various departments will brainstorm new ways to overcome these barriers and to generate insights on how to execute software engineering in the research context.

Ideas for future Thursday Think Tanks? Send comments or suggestions to Russ Clark (russ.clark@gatech.edu) or Maribeth Gandy (maribeth@imtc.gatech.edu)