Rigor and Reasoning in Research Software (R3Sw) Tutorial Was a Success

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of hosting the Rigor and Reasoning in Research Software (R3Sw) tutorial at NCAR’s Mesa Lab in Boulder. Over three days, 103 participants joined us (47 in person, 56 online) to explore a step-by-step approach to building more reliable scientific software.

We walked through a “ladder of rigor”, from simple unit tests all the way to property-based testing and automated reasoning with Z3, using hands-on notebooks, live demos, and lots of discussion. It was wonderful to see researchers, students, and software engineers from across universities, national labs, and industry learning and sharing experiences.

R3Sw was part of my 2025 BSSw Fellowship, and I’m grateful to the guest lecturers and organizers who helped shape the event. All tutorial materials are available online for anyone who wants to follow along:

alperaltuntas.com/R3Sw/welcome.html

Special thanks to our guest lecturers and invited speakers: Soonho Kong (AWS), Adrianna Foster (NSF NCAR), Antonios Mamalakis (UVA), Deepak Cherian (Earthmover), Helen Kershaw (NSF NCAR), Manish Venumuddula (NSF NCAR).