Notes: Climate & Sustainability IG Call Aug 10

OSSci Interest Groups Climate and Sustainability
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Climate and Sustainability Aug 10

Attending

  • Jonathan Starr (NumFOCUS)
    • Program manager for OSSci.
    • Works under NumFOCUS.
    • Pushing the OSSci initiative forward with 2 other team members.
  • Tim Bonnemann
    • Community lead for OSSci
    • Started in October of last year at IBM Research.
    • Located in San Jose, California, but currently visiting family in Germany.
  • Aggie Branczyk
    • Senior research scientist at IBM Quantum.
    • Exploring use cases for quantum computing in sustainability at IBM Quantum.
  • Abel Aoun
    • Software engineer for Eumetsat in Damstadt, Germany.
    • Interested in software engineering for open source.
    • Contributed to NumPy, Xarray.
  • Julian Aehlers
    • Previously worked for Siemens Twinpower in the Control Engineering Department.
    • Did work on wind turbine simulation and design software.
    • Took a break for parenting, getting back into the field and seeing what’s going on.
  • David Patton
    • Physicist, data scientist, and has worked as a software developer.
    • Located in Washington, D.C.
    • Currently in the healthcare industry.
    • Interested in filling gaps in the OS for science ecosystem
  • James Munroe
    • Works for 2I2C.
    • Deals with open interactive computing in the cloud.
    • Background in physical oceanography.
    • Interested in enabling efficient big data set handling.
  • Orion Cohen
    • Graduate student at the University of California Berkeley.
    • Works in computational material science, specifically on discovering new lithium-ion batteries and recyclable polymers.
    • Interested as a user and developer of open user software tools in sustainability.
    • Regularly frustrated at the maturity of the ecosystem and having to bake his own software.
    • Wants to see scientists collaborate with industry and each other more effectively
  • Mark Eyer
    • IT professional at a high school in New Orleans.
    • Undergraduate student at the University of New Orleans.
    • Interested in open source software, open access, open science, and their applications in sustainability.
  • Tina Lai
    • Community bio-project leader at Genspace in New York City.
    • Leading the Open Plant project.
    • Interested in open source tools in the ag tech sector.
  • Raimi Morufu Olalekan
    • Lecturer in the Department of Environmental Management and Toxicology in Nigeria.
    • Environmental health consultant with a focus on sustainability strategy, climate change, and health.
    • Wants to use digital technology to change society for the better.
  • Lloyd Treinish
    • Atmospheric scientist at IBM Research in Yorktown Heights, New York.
    • Works on weather and climate modeling and impacts of extreme weather events.
    • Uses and contributes to open-source numerical models and tools for scientific data management, analysis, and visualization.
  • Lisa Kempler (MathWorks)
    • From MathWorks.
    • Helps researchers, scientists, and educators use open platforms and develop open-source software related to MATLAB and data access.
  • Tab Memmott
    • Based in Oregon
    • Sr. Research Software Engineer.
    • Has been open science for a while now in the neurotech/cog neuro field and interested in getting more involved in sustainability.
  • Alexy Khrabrov
    • Director of OSSci at IBM research

Major Discussion Points:

General

  • The challenges of incentivizing researchers to develop and sustain software, and the importance of bridging the gap between researchers and software developers.
  • Hopes for collaborating on projects that would develop a more robust ecosystem for open science and contribute to making sustainability efforts more successful.
  • The need for tools to optimize climate modeling for efficient plant growth.
  • The importance of recognizing and incentivizing contributions to open-source projects in academic and job evaluations.

Expressing Drugs in Plants:

  • Vision of producing medicines like insulin in plants.
    • Discussion on the technological advancements and research necessary to make this vision a reality.
    • Consideration of the benefits, such as reducing global healthcare costs and increasing accessibility.
  • Potential of purifying drugs locally.
    • Drawing parallels to the consumption of locally grown foods.
    • Debating the feasibility of local pharmacies taking on the role of drug production.
  • Effective and efficient production challenges.
    • Delving into the processes involved in extraction, purification, and standardization to ensure safety and efficacy.

Climate, Farming, and Plant Modeling:

  • Use of open-source software for optimized farming.
    • Emphasis on software’s potential to transform agriculture and its ability to address climate change and sustainability challenges.
  • Tools like PlantCV for plant imaging.
    • How tools like these can revolutionize the way we understand plant growth, drug production potential, and address environmental challenges.
  • Vertical farming prospects and its technological implications.
    • Considering the energy usage, space efficiency, and scalability.
    • Exploring the sustainability of indoor farming environments and the future of urban farming.

Open-Source Science & Accessibility:

  • Difficulties in accessing methodologies and tools.
    • The struggle in locating specific data and code.
    • Discussing the broader implications for the scientific community when research is inaccessible.
  • Abandoned projects and possible solutions.
    • The recurring issue of projects left without updates, maintenance, or any direction.
    • Strategies proposed to integrate with existing platforms and how community support could ensure longevity.
  • Importance of a centralized platform for scientific tools.
    • Comparisons drawn to other platforms, considering the unique needs of the scientific community.
    • Debate on whether a more specialized platform than GitHub is necessary.
  • The Map of Open Source Science: its purpose and direction.
    • Exploring its real-time capabilities and the vision of it as a dynamic, interactive tool.
    • Consideration of how this platform could address the ongoing challenges discussed.

Research, Software, and Development:

  • Issues converting research code to usable software.
    • Analyzing the gap between academic research standards and the needs of software development.
    • Discussing the ongoing tension between academic research aims and software usability.
  • Training researchers vs. having dedicated software developers.
    • Differing viewpoints on this issue, considering the benefits and challenges of both approaches.
    • Debating how the two groups can work in synergy rather than in silos.
  • Funding and incentive challenges for research software development.
    • Brainstorming potential solutions, considering both public and private funding sources.
    • Discussions on the importance of recognizing software contributions in academia.
  • Differences in motivations and approaches between scientists and developers.

Action items