Innovative Training Enabled by a Research Software Engineering Community of Trainers (INTERSECT)

To address the lack of software development and engineering training for intermediate and advanced developers of research software, we present the NSF-sponsored INnovative Training Enabled by a Research Software Engineering Community of Trainers (INTERSECT), which delivers software development and engineering training to intermediate and advanced developers of research software. INTERSECT has three main goals:

1. Develop an open-source modular training framework conducive to community contribution 

2. Deliver RSE-led research software engineering training targeting research software developers 

3. Grow and deepen the connections within the national community of Research Software Engineers

The majority of INTERSECT’s funded focus is on activities surrounding the development and delivery of higher-level specialized research software engineering training. 

We have conducted two INTERSECT-sponsored Research Software Engineering Bootcamps (https://intersect-training.org/bootcamp23/ and https://intersect-training.org/bootcamp24/) at Princeton University. Each bootcamp included ~35 participants from a broad range of US-based institutions representing a diverse set of research domains. The 4.5-day bootcamp consisted of a series of stand-alone hands-on training modules. We designed the modules to be related, but not to rely on successful completion or understanding of previous modules. The primary goal of this design was to allow others to use the modules as needed (either as instructors or as self-guided learners) without having to participate in the entire bootcamp. 

The topics covered in the bootcamp modules were: Software Design, Packaging and Distribution, Working Collaboratively, Collaborative Git, Issue Tracking, Making Good Pull Requests, Documentation, Project Management, Licensing, Code Review & Pair Programming, Software Testing, and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment. 

We are organizing a third INTERSECT bootcamp in July 2025. We expect to again have approximately 35 attendees from a wide range of institutions covering a diverse set of research areas. Because the format and content of the first bootcamp were well-received, we plan to follow a very similar format for the second workshop.

We were recently notified that our renewal grant to fund the INTERSECT bootcamps was funded. Therefore, we will host 4 additional annual summer bootcamps in 2026-2029.

In this poster, we provide an overview of the INTERSECT project. We will provide more details on the content of the bootcamp. We will discuss outcomes of both editions of the bootcamp, including curriculum specifics, lessons learned, participant survey results, and long-term objectives. We will also describe how people can get involved as contributors or participants.