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If you ask me they mostly need software engineers, not “CS people” especially. Whenever I talk to a scientist about their software, I see great opportunities an

If you ask me they mostly need software engineers, not “CS people” especially. Whenever I talk to a scientist about their software, I see great opportunities and interesting problems that are solved in suboptimal ways. To be blunt, scientists can't code (and neither can most “CS people” for that matter). Every scientist (be it physics or CS) could use a professional software people, who have experience with developing and maintaining complex code bases. The problem is, there is no funding. Let's say a researcher gets a budget for some hardware and 10 PhD students, then there is nothing left to pay the engineer with. We're too expensive.

duncan_bayne 11y ago
Essentially what you're talking about is a lab assistant who can code? Sounds like a good idea, and might be something for people who work at companies that do pro-bono charity work.
gaze 11y ago
What's really funny is I started in software (have code committed to some open source projects... BIND, Valgrind), and then moved to Physics. The code is garbage because the constraints are totally different. Experiments and code can be brittle and still work. There's no time to consider user experience for fellow grad student when there's so much else to do... though I do know of SOME students who make time to write good code. Hats off to them.
- Hockenbrizzle 11y ago
  I'm a mechanical engineer in physics and I've had no formal training in writing code or computer science, yet, I am now doing simulations for atomic physics in Python. I am designing some software library package which will serve as a sort of diagnostic/design tool for future experiments with a machine being built. I've run into the problem of figuring out how to organize the whole dang thing and sometimes have to go back and re-write a lot of code. Can you recommend any good books that introduce computing concepts for applied physics and engineering?
  - scrumper 11y ago
    My favorite general guidebook for writing good, readable, maintainable, defensive code is "Code Complete": http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Construction/dp/0735619670 http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Const... It isn't domain specific but there is so much good advice in there around variable naming, code structure, general principles of bug-resistant coding that you will get a tremendous amount from it.
hvidgaard 11y ago
Not sure that would help though. You want someone with the theoretical knowhow to understand the problem at hand, so you can rewrite it to be simpler to program. In other words, a CS major with programming skills. They are in very high demand.
adrianN 11y ago
Software quality is just not something academia optimizes for. It only counts whether you can get your paper out. The chances that somebody else actually uses your software are slim, so investing time that could be spent writing more papers into better engineering makes little sense.

duncan_bayne 11y ago

Essentially what you're talking about is a lab assistant who can code? Sounds like a good idea, and might be something for people who work at companies that do pro-bono charity work.

gaze 11y ago

What's really funny is I started in software (have code committed to some open source projects... BIND, Valgrind), and then moved to Physics. The code is garbage because the constraints are totally different. Experiments and code can be brittle and still work. There's no time to consider user experience for fellow grad student when there's so much else to do... though I do know of SOME students who make time to write good code. Hats off to them.

Hockenbrizzle 11y ago
I'm a mechanical engineer in physics and I've had no formal training in writing code or computer science, yet, I am now doing simulations for atomic physics in Python. I am designing some software library package which will serve as a sort of diagnostic/design tool for future experiments with a machine being built. I've run into the problem of figuring out how to organize the whole dang thing and sometimes have to go back and re-write a lot of code. Can you recommend any good books that introduce computing concepts for applied physics and engineering?
- scrumper 11y ago
  My favorite general guidebook for writing good, readable, maintainable, defensive code is "Code Complete": http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Construction/dp/0735619670 http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Const... It isn't domain specific but there is so much good advice in there around variable naming, code structure, general principles of bug-resistant coding that you will get a tremendous amount from it.

hvidgaard 11y ago

Not sure that would help though. You want someone with the theoretical knowhow to understand the problem at hand, so you can rewrite it to be simpler to program. In other words, a CS major with programming skills. They are in very high demand.

adrianN 11y ago

Software quality is just not something academia optimizes for. It only counts whether you can get your paper out. The chances that somebody else actually uses your software are slim, so investing time that could be spent writing more papers into better engineering makes little sense.