SEA Open Discussion Series🔗︎

Beginning in 2023, the SEA has held regular (roughly every 1-2 months) open discussion events. Each event focuses on a particular topic of interest to the SEA community, with the goal of sharing knowledge, creating collaborations, breaking down silos, and building a community of practice.

These events are typically moderated by two individuals from the community. Moderators need not be Committee members - anyone can volunteer! If you would like to host an Open Discussion event for your particular topic of interest, please reach out to the SEA Steering Committee.

Latest Discussion🔗︎

Subject: Fortran Unit Testing and pFUnit
Time: 12 February 2026 at 2 PM Mountain Time
Presenter: Andy Stokely

Join the UCAR Software Engineering Assembly (SEA) at 2 pm on February 12^th for a tutorial and open discussion on unit testing Fortran code with pFUnit, a Fortran testing framework developed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center for testing high-performance Fortran libraries. This session will highlight how pFUnit simplifies the process of writing tests and lowers the barrier to adopting thorough testing practices in Fortran codebases. The session will begin with a tutorial demonstrating how pFUnit can be used to develop a Fortran library using Test-Driven Development (TDD).

Following the tutorial, the discussion will expand to examine the role of unit testing in scientific and high-performance Fortran development, including how testing can improve code quality, support long-term maintainability, and enable safer refactoring as requirements evolve. The conversation will also focus on how testing can facilitate more effective collaboration between software engineers and scientists. Participants are encouraged to share experiences, challenges, and perspectives related to adopting testing practices in scientific software projects.

Discussion topics will include:

• Applying Test-Driven Development to Fortran libraries
• Using unit tests to define expected behavior and verify correctness
• How testing supports maintainability and safe refactoring
• Ways unit testing can improve collaboration between scientists and software engineers

All are welcome, regardless of prior experience with pFUnit or unit testing. If you are UCAR/NCAR staff, please use this link to add the event to your Google Calendar. If you are not staff but would like to attend, email the SEA Committee for an invite link.

Past Discussions🔗︎