2025
The annual Improving Scientific Software Conference brings together software engineers, scientists, developers - any individuals with an interest in scientific software design - to share novel experiences and best practices, develop connections across divisions and institutions, and advance our community.
The pace of change for those using and developing scientific software accelerated in ways we have not seen in some time. Increasingly, tools and even models from the private sector are crossing over into our science domains. Large hyperscalers are driving changes in hardware priorities and we must adapt. And generative AI developments invite both potential and uncertainty for both developers and scientists.
The 2025 Improving Scientific Software Conference is organized by the UCAR Software Engineering Assembly (SEA).
Audience🔗︎
The conference is for staff and students at research institutions, universities, and in industry who are interested in learning and discussing the latest developments and practices in scientific software. Those working in the geosciences will likely find it most relevant. However, anyone who finds the agenda beneficial to them is welcome to attend even if they do not fit the category previously stated.
Registration and Logistics🔗︎
Registration is now open for the conference. We offer in-person and virtual registration - both types provide access for all four days of the conference. We do not offer single-day registration.
| Type | Registration Deadline | Price |
|---|---|---|
| In-person | 11:59 PM MT - March 21 | $300 |
| Virtual | 11:59 PM MT - April 3 | $50 |
If you are a student who was selected for registration support, we will send you an email with details on how to register shortly.
Venue🔗︎
NSF NCAR Center Green Campus
3080 Center Green Drive
Boulder, CO 80301
Lodging🔗︎
There are a multitude of great lodging options across Boulder. We do offer a limited number of rooms at the Residence Inn Boulder, conveniently located across the street from the conference venue.
Last Day to Book : Sunday, March 09, 2025
Submitting an Abstract🔗︎
Submission Types
Talks will be allocated 20 minutes, with 15 minutes for the talk itself and 5 minutes for questions.
Tutorials will be allocated between 1-4 hours; we will balance the request of the submitters along with the available of time in the program.
Panels will be 1 hour. It is expected that panel submitters will identify and collaborate with 2-4 panelists.
We welcome any abstracts related to improvements in scientific software, particularly those focused on the following topics:
- Staying up to date with modern trends in RSE
- AI/ML, including its use in software development
- Community and legacy software development and modernization
- Improving the accessibility and usability of code bases to reach larger audiences (documentation, Jupyter notebooks, etc.)
- Scientific data analysis or visualization software
- Software development for HPC, accelerators, or any other non-standard hardware architectures
- Software management, both technical (e.g. CI/CD) and personnel-oriented (e.g. managing a team of developers)
- Continuously updating code bases to keep up with evolving background science; how innovations in science drive software development
We also strongly encourage abstracts from student and early-career participants who might be interested.
Student Submission Support🔗︎
Registration, travel, and lodging support will be available for a select number of accepted student submissions. Any undergraduate or graduate student submitting any type of abstract is eligible for this support. During review, abstracts will be categorized into one of three outcomes:
- Accepted with registration and travel support
- Accepted without travel support
- Rejected
If a student submission is accepted without travel support, the submitter is still encouraged to attend in-person if possible or virtually. If you have any questions about student submission assistance, please reach out to the conference committee by email.
Proceedings🔗︎
The ISS 2025 Conference will be using Jupyter Notebooks for proceedings again this year. For those who are unfamiliar, Jupyter Notebooks allow for both static representation of text, code, and equations using Markdown and HTML as well as interactive execution of commands with a selected language kernel (interpretor). This format provides authors with more tools to present their work and allows readers the opportunity to interact with your code or science in ways not possible with traditional text-only proceedings.
Useful resources for authors:
We expect authors to submit proceedings by the end of the Conference week (11 April, 2025). This timing will allow us to offer an office hour during the conference to provide assistance to authors who want it.
If you have any questions, please email the ISS Proceedings committee.
Code of Conduct🔗︎
UCAR and NSF NCAR are committed to providing a safe, productive, and welcoming environment for all participants in any conference, workshop, field project or project hosted or managed by UCAR, no matter what role they play or their background.