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Introduction to Software Engineering Practices for Scientific Computing

We've all had the experience where a code that we swear was working perfectly 6 months ago is giving wrong answers (or crashing) today. This is exactly the type of problem that software engineering practices were designed to prevent. We will introduce some basic concepts from software engineering that are designed to make your life as a scientist easier. These include version control, unit and regression testing, debugging and profiling, safe code styles, prototyping and scripting, build systems, and automated tools for detecting memory issues. The talk is targeted to students who are beginning to work on codes for their research either individually or in a group. Some examples from my own codes will be used to illustrate these ideas. When used properly, software engineering practices can help you prevent and recover easily from bugs.

 

This workshop is being sponsored jointly with the Stony Brook Astronomy Program: http://astro.sunysb.edu/astro/seminars.html

Bio

Michael Zingale is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University, working in the Astronomy Group. Before coming to SBU he was a postgraduate researcher in the Astronomy and Astrophysics department at UC Santa Cruz, working with the Supernovae Science Center. He was formerly a research associate (and graduate student before that) at the Center on Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes at the University of Chicago, where he was a co-developer of the FLASH Code. His main research interests involve computational astrophysics (particularly the development of new hydrodynamics methods for low Mach number astrophysical flows) and nuclear astrophysics (studying anything that blows up). This work is done in collaboration with the Center for Computational Sciences and Engineering at LBL.
Michael Zingale

Speaker

Michael Zingale

Date

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Time

2:30 - 3:30 pm

Location

Earth Space & Science Building Room 450