Dr Pavel Golodoniuc1, Dr Vincent Fazio1, Mr YunLong Li1, Dr Jens Klump1, Dr Lesley Wyborn2
1CSIRO, Kensington, Australia, 2Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
The AuScope Virtual Research Environment (AVRE) has run the AVRE Build Program over the past three years. The program was designed to improve the engagement of research teams, collaborate with geoscientists and assist with translating scientific requirements into reusable solutions ranging from data management to numerical modelling and complex data visualisation. Developing scientific software solutions has been challenging with the diverse backgrounds of stakeholders involved. The software engineering design principles are well-known and applied ubiquitously. However, in a multidisciplinary environment, it has been necessary to collaboratively develop and strengthen our design approach to break the “language barrier” between scientists and technologists. Our approach stems from the Rapid Application Development methodology and the Agile project management strategy popular in the realm of software engineering. We involve scientists at all stages of the development lifecycle, with particular attention given to the definition of project success and a minimum viable project, requirements analysis, wireframing and prototyping, through to project launch and handover. Organising the project into short focused sprints with the direct involvement of geoscientists has allowed us to deliver projects in short time frames and to maintain momentum. The direct involvement of scientists in the design aspects of the project fostered a close collaborative environment between all participants, created a sense of ownership for the product and, as a result, cemented the longevity of the project under the scientists’ custodianship. Herein, we will detail our approach to scientific application development, the challenges we have experienced, and the successes we have achieved.
Biography:
Dr Pavel Golodoniuc holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Sciences and a PhD in Exploration Geophysics from Curtin University. Before joining CSIRO, he gained extensive experience in software systems engineering for commercial, industrial and governmental sectors. In CSIRO, Pavel leads the Informatics Platforms team in the Mineral Resources business unit. He provides technical leadership in national spatial data infrastructure projects involving collaborators from geological surveys, universities, industry, and the international Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) community. Since 2019, Pavel has led the AuScope Virtual Research Environments (AVRE) Build Program designed to improve the engagement of research teams, collaborate with geoscientists and assist with translating scientific requirements into reusable solutions. His professional focus is on data-intensive multi-disciplinary sciences, numerical modelling, high-performance computing, and scientific data visualisation.