The Collegeville Workshops on Scientific Software: Looking Back and Forward

Scientific software underpins a large and growing number of scientific discoveries and engineering advances. At the same time, it is a small portion of the total software produced, has little literature, or focus on improvement and community building relative to other, larger software domains. The Collegeville Workshop Series on Scientific Software provides a platform for scientific software teams and stakeholders to exchange information on the nature, challenges, and technical and cultural approaches to improve key elements of the scientific software enterprise. By soliciting white papers, posters, and tea-time themes, these workshops gather content to provide a three-day live event, plus recorded presentations and interviews that enable community members to learn from each other. The outcomes from the first two workshops, in 2019 and 2020, have provided a body of knowledge and experience that expands the size and recognition of software as an important part of the scientific enterprise. The 2021 workshop, focused on software teams, intends to further expand the conversation, and continue to build community around scientific software to improve its impact on science and engineering.