1st onsite RSE meeting at Ethz
It was a pleasure having participated in the 1st onsite meeting of the ETHZ RSE Community. A short wrapup of the event with photos. On the 1st of February, around 60 participants met for talks and discussions in Zurich. For me the most interesting part was brainstorming the future of the RSE movement in CH. RSE.ethz will soon output a document outlining next steps.
Lightning Talks
We had 8 lightning talks on very diverse subjects from different parts of ETHZ and WSL. Some were informative, some funny (“The smoke from this high-voltage stress test is not an accident - though an accident looks the same”), some very interesting.
Invited Talk
Peter Schmidt, a trustee of the RSE Society UK, gave us an introduction to the history of the RSE movement in the UK. This was very interesting, considering that we’re currently starting out very young here in CH. One of the next steps to define is whether we’re already in the stage of gathering the RSE movements in the different parts of CH under a common umbrella. As we’re just starting out, it’s not sure whether this is a good time to do so, or whether we should wait a bit longer.
Discussion
The discussion part was really good - we had 5 groups discussing the short and long term goals, visibility of RSEs, and special interest and working groups. Some points I’m really looking forward to:
- More knowledge and exchange meetings locally
- National RSE conference
- Mentorships between RSEs - there is a UK program
- Diversity programs
- Swiss RSE society
Stay tuned!
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