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+:blogpost: true
+:date: 2024-10-23
+:author: Richard Darst
+:category: rse
+
+
+What is a Research Software Engineer?
+=====================================
+
+What is a Research Software Engineer (RSE)?  Too many things to
+define, you can find these definitions elsewhere.  Maybe the question
+you would like to know is **How do I get value from Research Engineers
+like Aalto Scientific Computing does?** - that's what we'll try to
+answer here.  Through that, we may learn a functional definition.
+
+This page is written from the perspective of *computational science* -
+similar messages may apply to other fields.  Note that computing and
+AI is in every field now.
+
+
+
+University roles
+----------------
+
+When someone wants Research Engineers, it's probably because they see
+something that is missing in the current academic system.  Thus, to
+understand what we want, we need to understand the system.  Below is
+rkdarst's current mental model:
+
+* **Academics** are who we usually consider researchers.  They do
+  research, and are promoted based on articles published and citations
+  received from other academics.  Citations from academics tend to
+  focus on innovation and novelness, so that's what decides career
+  paths.
+
+* **Research Engineers (REs)** focus on the practice and "structural
+  integrity" of the research: the tools, the reproducibility, and
+  more.  They are more concerned with the work being done well, than
+  pure novelness and citations. [0]_
+
+  Research Software Engineers (RSEs) are a subset of Research
+  Engineers, and I feel that the "software" is the least significant
+  part there.  Software is important, but so is data, computing,
+  reproducibility, etc.
+
+  Particular examples of things that Research Engineers are good at
+  include: Reproduciblity, maintaining software and data across academic
+  generations, Open Science, programming, using large computer
+  clusters, data security, and research ethics processes.
+
+* **Researchers**, in my mind, cover both of the above (and more).
+  Industrial research teams would have both of the above and possibly
+  even more different roles all working together on their problems.
+  In universities, we tend to only consider the academics to
+  researchers.
+
+So what's a Research Engineer?  To me, it's defined mostly in terms of
+what is missing from the typical academic career path (of
+undergraduate → junior researcher → senior researcher).  At all
+levels, I've seen research engineering under-valued and under-taught
+(not necessarily because it's not wanted, but because it's not novel
+science and there's no time).  Senior researchers (group leaders)
+often see the value, but don't have the ability to train and supervise
+research engineers well.
+
+
+
+How Aalto RSE filled the gap
+----------------------------
+
+Years before Aalto RSE started (~2017-2018), I saw a need for more
+basic skills (for example: version control to manage code) and worked
+to promote them in undergraduate programs.  This basically didn't
+work, because they were seen as not scientific thus not something to
+be taught in academic courses (and if they were thought, the courses
+would be full of people looking for easy ECTS).  While there certainly
+are study programs in software and software engineering, these are
+their own thing, and not part of data science, or other fields that
+need computation.  Software engineering programs also aren't adapted
+for the unpredictibility of research.
+
+This was the prompting to start Aalto Research Software Engineers - if
+we can't teach people skills in study programs, we have to support
+them when they become researchers (and teach it via practical
+mentoring).  This has worked out very well, as you can see by our
+rapid expansion and heavy usage.
+
+Aalto RSE is essentially the collaborator our research groups need to
+do their top-level work.  This system works very well, but are there
+other options?
+
+
+
+How to get research engineering competence in universities?
+-----------------------------------------------------------
+
+The above leads to various ideas.  Take your pick for what angle
+you want to approach the problem:
+
+* Better RE teaching in undergraduate programs:
+
+  * As part of existing programs (is there time to teach this?  Is
+    there desire?  On the other hand, RE skills are great for
+    employment prospects)
+
+  * As dedicated majors? (Some people are trying to make dedicated RSE
+    study programs at different universities, and there is a value
+    there.  But if you ask me the best value is learning RE along with
+    academic research in a different field)
+
+* Better RE teaching in graduate programs:
+
+  * Many of the same things as above apply here, mainly the lack of
+    time, and the necessity to spend time on novel research, not
+    learning existing best practices.
+
+* Nurture REs within existing research groups:
+
+  * Nothing stops group leaders from hiring students and postdocs who
+    have chosen to focus on research engineering.  This often happens
+    when supervisors hire technical postdocs to manage the RE side of
+    things.  (The question is: can they be supervised and mentored
+    well by academic supervisors, if they need to be home-grown?)
+
+  * If group leaders hire good candidates, Aalto RSE can help mentor
+    them.  See the companion blog post :doc:`/2024/rse-work-rotations`
+    for one idea.
+
+* Recruit REs as professor-level group leaders" similar to how senior
+  academics are recruited:
+
+  * These people would focus on collaborating with others to make
+    projects possible.
+
+  * The university systems don't seem set up to value these people,
+    thus they don't appear among the ranks.  They could appear if they
+    spent their careers chasing academic citations, but then would
+    they be able to spend enough time on research engineering?
+
+  * I think this is what some people mean when they say they want a
+    RSE career path: a way to recruit senior academics who lead
+    research engineering groups.  I think the idea is good but it's
+    not how universities are set up, so it's a long way off.  The
+    values systems may not even match up.
+
+* Create parallel structures that support research engineering
+
+  * That is what Aalto RSE has done.  We are researchers, but we make
+    new research possible by collaborating with academics, instead of
+    trying to publish by ourselves.  We are part of the services of
+    the School of Science.
+
+  * We also take it upon ourselves to do teaching and mentoring via
+    co-working for all types of researchers (aspiring academic or
+    research engineer).  We can fill in the technical mentoring that's
+    missing by many supervisors.
+
+
+
+Getting your own research engineers
+-----------------------------------
+
+I've seen many people interested in gaining research engineering
+competence for their organization.  You need to develop an environment
+where they fill in the gaps you need.
+
+* Junior academics: encourage them to explore their technical skills.
+  Show that there is value in this, even if it reduces the number of
+  publications.  Encourage them to get training (for example the Aalto
+  RSE training).  Give them time, encouragement, and career prospects
+  to reach beyond the focus on papers.
+
+* Other support staff at universities and other organizations: don't
+  view them as limited-purpose supporters of an {infrastructure,
+  service, process}.  View them as supporters of research: let them
+  holistically support research projects from many angles at once,
+  rather than only in narrow silos with strict project reporting
+  requirements.
+
+* You can hire dedicated staff to be REs, but it's important that they
+  are integrated into the local research environment.  Most of our
+  hires have been local staff who have grown into a new role, and I
+  think this is how it should be.
+
+Any of the above, especially the first two, require time being made
+available for RE work and a clear vision and network.  Aalto RSE (with
+the help of others in Finland) is planning on making a networking and
+onboarding program for new research engineers who wish to adopt this
+vision.
+
+
+
+Summary
+-------
+
+If you read this far, you probably see the value in research engineers
+and want them yourself.  Just hiring someone, or changing someone's
+job to "RSE", won't magically solve the problem you need.  It's a
+whole mindset shift towards a multi-disciplinary research team.
+
+What's the right level of research engineers, permanent and
+experienced or junior and learning?  Probably a bit of both.
+
+
+
+.. rubric:: Footnotes
+
+.. [0] I know that "Research Engineer" is a job title that can have
+       other definitions.
+