Research software projects have unique constraints from funding agencies and incentives for the researchers who produce the software. To address these challenges and improve understanding of software architecture for research projects, this webinar presents methods for visually communicating elements of software design and incorporating them into typical software development workflows. The webinar introduces the Unified Modeling Language (UML) through the book UML Distilled, while also describing and demonstrating tools and methods for UML automation. The webinar also discusses how this approach of focusing on software architecture can bring attention to the important and impactful craft of research software engineering.

Presenter

• Rafael Mudafort (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

Presenter Bio

Rafael Mudafort is a senior researcher at the National Renewable Energy Lab’s National Wind Technology Center, focusing on computational modeling of wind turbine and wind farm dynamics and controls. He has served as the research software engineer for several wind energy software packages, and he is currently involved in an effort to coordinate and elevate the quality of NREL’s wind energy software. Rafael is also a 2023 Better Scientific Software Fellow.