Scientific Software Innovation Institute for Computational Chemistry and Materials Modeling (S212C2M2) Software Summer School

The (SICM)2 project held an inaugural Software Summer School at Virginia Tech in July 2013. The school involved 26 graduate students (including eight women) from 18 different institutions working with seven instructors and four graduate assistants. The reviews from the students were overwhelmingly positive, and numerous other students have made inquiries regarding future schools. Recognizing the value of this to the students, the research productivity of themselves and their groups, and the huge value for community building, the (SICM)2 project collaboration is holding a second Software Summer School, in this case at Stony Brook. The Software Summer School promotes community building and broadening participation of groups and individuals nationwide. It takes primarily 1st/2nd year graduate students with some very basic skills in programming and puts them on a trajectory to becoming skilled and professional developers of scientific software who are aware of basic software engineering practices and skills, and also aware of foundational concepts and techniques in HPC. Peer-to-peer engagement is perhaps even more important: students build confidence in themselves by networking with their peers and realizing they are all in the same boat; career-long relationships can form in such events.