INCF/OCNS Software WG

The INCF/OCNS Software Working Group

WG meeting 06 July 2022


Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash

Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash.


These are the meeting logs (and additional progress notes) from the Software WG meeting that was held on 6th July, 2022. The next progress meeting will be held in August. For any clarifications and suggestions, please open a new ticket.

Attendees

0800 UTC

  • Ankur Sinha
  • Stuart Heitmann
  • Felix Kern
  • Shailesh Appukuttan
  • Padraig Gleeson
  • Marcel Stimberg

1700 UTC

  • Marcel Stimberg
  • Ankur Sinha

CNS*2022 Satellite tutorials: recap

The primary agenda for the meeting was to discuss the software working group satellite tutorials.

  • there were 256 registrants in total
  • for each session, more than 85 people had indicated that they would attend, but average turn out was at about 10—20 for each session

We discussed ideas for the next round of satellite tutorials to increase turn out:

  • we could send out daily reminders with links during the tutorial days
    • per session e-mails could also be sent out, but would be too much work to do manually (and error prone)
    • needs to be automated in a way that e-mails don’t end up in spam: can be scripted using tool such as mailmerge
  • also generate and attach an ICS calendar file to e-mails so attendees can add to their calendars
  • we could require additional confirmation/cancellation before starting; this will give us better idea of who will attend, but won’t necessarily increase attendance
  • we could have a low registration fee: this will filter out people who “just sign up”, but may not increase actual attendance
    • could include registration waivers for students
    • could make it free for INCF/OCNS members: encourage memberships
  • people may not have known enough about tools to know what sessions to attend
    • we could have a starting keynote on introduction to comp neuro, and then it gives attendees an idea of what is going to be featured during the tutorials
      • it’ll be good to get a high profile speaker who would be happy to do this to increase attendance
    • see also https://github.com/OCNS/SoftwareWG/issues/61
    • we could also have a recording with a few minutes about each tool that’s featured in the satellite tutorials: teaser type video; so that people can watch a quick YouTube video and get an idea of all tutorials
    • we could also have a set of slides based on a template showing the features of each tool
    • these last few ideas require some extra work from participating tutors
  • Spreading the sessions over weeks instead of days in a week may not necessarily increase attendance
  • ACTION: Ankur create and send out feedback survey to registrants to gather information on what went well and why people were not able to attend; it’s important to understand if it was because people missed sessions because the information/calendar wasn’t clearly accessible so that we can improve on these
  • does it make sense to do it after the conferences to build on the momentum of the conference: can be done, the next ones in ~6 months time will be independent of the conference
  • we must push both INCF and OCNS to send out communications about the sessions
  • we may repeat this again in 6 months, with improvements: “Simulator week”?
    • Depends on how many software WG folks can commit to spending time on helping with organisation
  • ACTION: Ankur e-mail all tutors with our discussion and improvements for the next iteration, asking if they’d be happy to re-do sessions if we repeat in 6 months.

Other general discussion

  • WG organise half day hack sessions/unconferences/sprints to work on tasks of common interest
    • best practices document
    • simulators page
  • Informal meet up at Bernstein conference

INCF Assembly

Didn’t have time in morning session, not discussed