Hello world!

When I've been the sole software developer on a research team, I've often felt isolated and unsure that my work. Without peers I really didn't produce the best software. I also lack the expertise of dedicated IT staff, but may be one of the few among this group with research experience. But in the last several years I've had the pleasure of working with many people on this campus like myself who work in this intersection of custom software development for scholary activities - in many disciplines.

The term "Research Software Engineering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_software_engineering)" (RSE) was coined in 2010 to encapsulate what many of us have been doing for years. The US-RSE group formed years ago but had their first conference Fall 2023. It was there that my colleague and I met our kindred spirits.

That has motivated us to form a social group here on our campus to pursue locally the stated goals of the US-RSE: Community, Advocacy, Resources, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

However we would like to cast a wider net to encourage many of those who may not consider themselves 'engineers' or who are shifting their focus and find themselves writing software more an more. I would not have considered myself an "engineer" years ago, but was just "the computer person" responsible for anything IT-related for research groups. I you write software to get your scholarly work done and you are interested in the craft of software development, then you belong here. One of the best student-employee developers I've worked with was from the history department. I especially want to support those who are from groups who are under-represented in the software development industry who may bring a fresh perspective to our work.

-- Pat Bills