The Scientific Software Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Washington works with researchers across various disciplines to build robust software that bolsters inquiry and builds community. The resulting tools are open source and reusable, designed to sustain discovery beyond SSEC’s involvement in the projects. Further information and links to each of our projects can be found below.
2023 Projects
Neglected Diagnostics: Democratizing Genetic Testing
Genetic testing is routinely relied upon to detect illegal trafficking of wildlife, monitor invasive species and pathogens, and keep tabs on the spread of diseases or outbreaks. Conservation X Labs is building a platform that enables researchers to rapidly create genetic tests for every pest, pathogen, or species in the field.
Offshore Geodesy: Advancing Research and Collaboration in Seafloor Deformation
SSEC is working with researchers from UW’s Department of Earth and Space Sciences to build and refactor a software package for leveraging geodetic instruments. The project aims to foster collaboration among teams from Japan to Canada, ensuring collective progress in assessing seismic and tsunami hazards.
WetAI: Collaborative Neurobiology
Cerebral organoids are derived from induced or natural stem cells, including from mouse or human cells, within a laboratory setting. While their potential is astounding, they are currently only accessible to a select number of prestigious labs. SSEC is collaborating with researchers from UC Santa Cruz to democratize and scale access to WetAI, an online platform which enables remote experimentation for researchers, educators, and students.
NoisePy: Ambient Field Seismology in Python
NoisePy is a Python package designed for fast and easy computation of ambient noise cross-correlation functions. SSEC is collaborating with the Denolle Quake Lab at UW to support package development and maintain performance while scaling capacity within an open-source framework. Upon completion, NoisePy and SSEC hope to enable one hundred scientists to process up to 100 TBs of seismic data.
Echopype: Ocean Acoustics
Echopype is a Python package designed for streamlined data processing of ocean sonar data. SSEC is working with researchers from UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory to develop a robust infrastructure that aids in the exploration, monitoring, and management of living marine resources. The development team is also leveraging Echopype as a community building tool, to provide researchers across the globe a platform to collaborate and interact organically through open development.