About the symposium#
The inaugural Research Software Symposium was held at the University of Cape Town, bringing together researchers, software engineers, funders, and policy makers to advance the research software ecosystem in South Africa.
The event attracted more than 15 speakers and over 80 participants from across South Africa, covering topics including research software quality, sustainability, open science, infrastructure, and policy.
Agenda#
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 09:30–10:00 | Coffee/Tea & Networking |
| 10:00–10:10 | Welcome and housekeeping |
| 10:10–10:20 | Welcome & UCT eResearch Introduction — Prof Mattia Vaccari, eResearch Director, UCT |
| 10:20–10:55 | Keynote — Prof Simon Hettrick, Director of Strategy, Software Sustainability Institute, UK |
| 10:55–11:05 | Research software in (South) Africa |
| 11:05–11:50 | Lightning talks & Q&A: Local research software projects showcase |
| 11:50–12:45 | Panel & Q&A: Strengthening the South African research software ecosystem |
| 12:45–13:00 | Closing remarks |
| 13:00–14:00 | Networking & light lunch |
Speakers#
| Name | Role & Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Prof Mattia Vaccari | Director, eResearch Centre, UCT |
| Prof Simon Hettrick | Director of Strategy, Software Sustainability Institute, UK |
| Peter van Heusden | Senior Bioinformatician, South African National Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI), UWC & Co-lead, RSSE Africa |
| Dr Junaid Gamielden | Senior Bioinformatics Manager, Roche Diagnostics, Cape Town |
| Prof Kevin Naidoo | Director, Scientific Computing Research Unit, UCT |
| Ms Jansie Niehaus | Executive Director, National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) |
| Prof AJ Smit | Professor, Department of Biodiversity & Conservation Biology, University of the Western Cape |
| Mr Juan Steyn | Director of Operations, South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) |
| Alyssa Amod | PhD Candidate, Neuroscience Institute, UCT |
| Dr Hocine Bendou | Lecturer, Computational Omics and Biomedical Informatics Program, UCT |
| Naledi Manyaka | MSc Candidate, Environmental and Water Science, UWC |
| Takudzwa N Musarurwa | Research Software Developer, eLwazi Open Data Science Platform, UCT |
| Adrianna Pińska | Research Software Developer, Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA), UCT |
| Michaela Van Zyl | Research Software Developer, Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA), UCT |
| Dr Friedel Wolff | Technical Manager, South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) |
| Anelda van der Walt | Senior eResearch Analyst, UCT eResearch Centre & Co-lead, RSSE Africa |
Organisers#
The symposium was co-hosted by: