Note : This interview was recorded in the summer of 2020. However, due to the pandemic we could not release the episode timely. Therefore, the current status of FSF and recent events are not discussed in this episode.In episode 31, we interviewed Craig Topham from the Licensing and Compliance Team of the GNU Project about GNU software licenses. We …

In episode 30, we interviewed Todd Gamblin from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory about the Spack project. We discussed his current research project along with his involvement in Spack. We widely discussed the philosophy of Spack, some usage patterns, its capabilities for managing package management in HPC clusters as well as standalone co…

In episode 29, we interviewed Jason R Coombs from the setuptools project. We started with a discussion about his background and his interest for Python and other programming languages. Following that, we had a thorough discussion about setuptools. We covered topics such as how he got involved in the project, the nature and composition of a Python p…

In episode 28, we interviewed Leah Silen from the NumFocus organization. She introduced us to the goals and the mission of the organization. We then had a discussion about the different levels of support provided by the organization to its member projects. She informed us about the legal, financial, technological and logistical support that can be …

In episode 27, we interviewed Ralf Gommers from the NumPy and SciPy projects. We started our discussion by talking about his past research experience as a physicist and his transition to open source software and programming. This led him to get involved in projects such as PyWavelets, NumPy and SciPy. Following that, we had a great discussion about…

By FLOSSforScience

By FLOSSforScience

In episode 24, we interviewed Simon Hettrick Professor at the University of Southampton in the UK. We started the discussion with him by asking about his transition from deveoppin high-power lasers to founding the research software engineers (RSE) association and how his experiences got him in his current position. We then discussed about the roles…

In episode 23, we interviewed Dan Quintana from the University of Oslo. We started the discussion with him by asking the link between all his subjects of interest and where R fits into his workflow. We then had an extensive discussion about R including his must have R packages and the synthpop package for generating synthetic datasets. We then wide…

In episode 22, we interviewed Robert Dodier from the Maxima project. After a brief introduction and a presentation of Robert's current uses for Maxima he introduced what is Maxima and what can be achieved with it. We discussed some core concepts of Maxima's language as well as how to access the documentation within the software to help users. Then …

In episode 21, we interviewed Juan Pablo Carbajal, an Argentinian physicist currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Urban Water Management at the ETH domain in Switzerland. We had a great discussion about GNU Octave and how it can help scientists. We compared its core functions and its expandability through packages to i…

In episode 20, we interviewed Arfon Smith, Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS) and Head of Data Science at the Space Telescope Science Institute. We talked with him about the creation of JOSS and its role in peer reviewed publications of research software. He described to us how to start a peer reviewed scientific journal …

In episode 19, we interviewed Glenn Cooper the Head of experiment computing department at Fermilab about the history and future of the linux distribution Scientific Linux. The discussion started with a brief overview of current research activities at Fermilab. When then extensively talked about Scientific Linux, its goals, the reason why it was sta…

In episode 18, we interviewed Jesse Allison an Associate Professor of Experimental Music and Digital Media at Louisiana State University. We had a great discussion about his work to expand the experience and interactivy of music and sounds. He shared with us his view on how sciences and arts intersect in his projects. He listed some of the tools he…

In episode 17, we interviewed Adrian Serio the Scientific Program Coordinator of the STELLAR group about the C++ Standard Library for Concurrency and Parallelism (HPX). We started with a general discussion about parallel computing, where it comes from, where it is going and what can we still expect to gain. We then clarified what are C++ standards …

For episode 16, we interview the Research Associate Professor Karl W. Schulz. The episode starts with a discussion about High Performance Computing and how OpenHPC facilitate the managment of computing ressources. We then open the discussion towards open source tools, how they became so important for HPC and the their importance for open science. W…

For episode 15, we interview the Associate Professor of Archaeology Ben Marwick. We start our discussion with an overview of some FLOSS tools he uses and how much FLOSS are used in archaeology. He shares with us his experience in regard to working completely in the open with GitHub and his hope that open science will become the norm in the future. …

In episode 14, we interview Pat David a Free Software advocate, occasional photographer and engineer about the GIMP project. We talked about how GIMP can be used by scientists to enhance their images for their publications. Also, Pat shared with us his strong opinions regarding scientific communication and why free software matters. You will also l…

For episode 13, we interviewed Martin Owens, a British Free Software contractor based in Boston Massachusetts, during the 2018 Kiel Inkscape Hackfest, about the Inkscape project. After a brief presentation of Inkscape, we talked about the svg file format and the compatibility of Inkscape with other commercial proprietary offerings. He presented us …

In Episode 12, we interviewed Kenneth Hoste, who is an HPC system administrator at Ghent University in Belgium. We talked about the problems that arise when installing scientific software on HPC systems and how the EasyBuild project that originated at HPC-UGent helps dealing with those problems, the impact of open source software in scientific rese…

In Episode 11, we interviewed Sébastien Le Digabel about NOMAD a blackbox optimization software. A blackbox is a system which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs, without any knowledge of its internal workings. NOMAD is a software for the optimization of such problems. It implements the Mesh Adaptive Direct Search (MADS) derivative-fre…

In Episode 10, we interviewed Sébastien Loriot about CGAL. A software project that provides easy access to efficient and reliable geometric algorithms in the form of a C++ library. CGAL is used in various areas needing geometric computation, such as geographic information systems, computer aided design, molecular biology, medical imaging, computer …

In Episode 9, we interviewed Christophe Geuzaine about Gmsh, a three-dimensional finite element mesh generator with built-in pre- and post-processing facilities. Gmsh is a free 3D finite element mesh generator with a built-in CAD engine and post-processor. Its design goal is to provide a fast, light and user-friendly meshing tool with parametric in…

For episode 8, we interviewed Bruno Blais about his utilization of open source software in his research about solid-liquid mixing. We started our conversation by talking about the different kinds of software packages he uses in his simulation workflow. We then asked him why and when he has decided to use FLOSS tools in is research. Following that, …

For Episode 7, we interviewed Karl Fogel and James Vasile about the importance of software licenses for scientists. The discussion was inspired from Chapter 9: Legal Matters: Licenses, Copyrights, Trademarks and Patents of Karl's book: Producing Open Source Software - How to Run a Successful Free Software Project. Choosing a license for ones open s…

In Episode 6, we interviewed Christian Horea about the [NeuroGentoo Overlay](https://github.com/TheChymera/neurogentoo) for Gentoo Linux which includes specific packages for Neuroscience. With this distribution many of the challenges in neuroscience software management; including: system replicability, system documentation, data analysis reproducib…

In Episode 5, we interview Katarina Behrens, a consultant and software developers of LibreOffice, LibreOffice extensions and related libraries working at CIB Group of Companies. We discuss her involvement with The Document Foundation, the capabilities of the LibreOffice suite and why an open source office suite is relevant for scientists.…

In Episode 4, we interview Carl Boettinger, Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley. He introduces us to his work on ecological forecasting and decision making under uncertainty, with applications for global change, conservation and natural resource management. He presents to us the Rocke…

In Episode 3, we interview Oliver Kopp and Jörg Lenhard about the reference management tool Jabref.By FLOSSforScience

In Episode 2, we interview Laurent Cormier, a research associate at the Ecole de Technologie Superieure in Montreal. He introduces us to his past research regarding the evaluation of the fatigue life of composite materials and the predictive model he developed with Python. He also share with us his scientific perspective on FLOSS and tools he uses …

In this episode the two hosts David Brassard and Patrick Diehl of FLOSS for Science introduce themselves and they explain the aims of this podcast.By FLOSSforScience