Events from the RSDN, University of Oxford

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Next meeting

The next Research Software Developer Network (RSDN) meeting will be held on Tuesday 19th May at 11:00 - 14:30. It will be hosted by Oxford Research Software Engineering (OxRSE) in the Doctoral Training Centre on Keble Rd.

Time: 11:00 – 14:30, 19th May 2026 (Tue.

Location: Seminar Room 1a/b (first floor), Doctoral Training Centre, 1-4 Keble Rd, Oxford OX1 3NP

This meeting will have an AI-in-Science focus, starting with an hour of short talks from members of OxRSE about the work they do supporting the Schmidt AI in Science Fellowship, followed by a networking lunch for in-person participants. After lunch we will run an optional workshop titled “Responsible Use of AI for Coding”. If any of this is of interest, please register via the form linked below so we have an idea of numbers.

Talks by RSEs supporting the Schmidt AI in Science Fellowship Programme (11am - 12 pm):

• Oliver King - Tracking and Identifying Picasso Triggerfish in Videos
• Jack Leland - TarXiv, a web app serving aggregated astronomical transient data from multiple sources; and roughpy-jax, a JAX backend for the Python maths library—RoughPy—for doing calculations on rough paths.
• Timothy Poon - Topic to be confirmed. Responsible Use of AI for Coding Workshop (1pm - 2:30pm):

This workshop guides attendees on integrating artificial intelligence into software engineering workflows effectively and ethically. Participants will learn to navigate the balance between the opportunities AI offers for rapid prototyping and the significant risks it presents, such as security vulnerabilities, hallucinations, and "sycophantic" bad code. The emphasis is on the fact that while AI serves as an "enthusiastic but inexperienced intern," the ultimate responsibility for code correctness, security, and maintainability remains with the developer. If possible, please bring a laptop to this session.

Registration Form

 

Previous Events

The most recent Research Software Developers Network (RSDN) meeting for 2025 was on Monday 16th June, hosted by the Visual Geometry Group (VGG) in the IEB Building of the Department of Engineering Science on the Parks Road.

As usual, after the talks, there was a networking lunch for in-person participants. 

Abstract:

The Visual Geometry Group (VGG) in the Department of Engineering Science has two goals:

1. Pursue basic research and development in Computer Vision; 
2. Transfer and translate research to other disciplines and industry.

Since 2016, a team of Research Software Engineers (RSEs) and Research Ambassadors have pursued the second goal of enabling and facilitating the transfer and translation of research. The RSEs develop and maintain research software tools based on computer vision and artificial intelligence, while the RAs introduce these tools to their respective non-engineering research communities (e.g., Humanities, Anthropology, Biology).

In this RSDN talk, the RSEs and RAs from the VGG will showcase some of their research software tools that are being used worldwide and highlight research collaborations that span various academic disciplines like Humanities, Anthropology, Ecology, Medicine, Music, Journalism, Biology, etc. For example, the RSEs will demonstrate software tools that can use natural language to instantly search audiovisual archives. The Research Ambassadors will show how computer vision-based approaches are providing new insights into the literary works of Dante, and are helping ecologists study animal behavior and population

 

Time: 12:00 – 13:30, 16th June 2025 (Mon)

Location: Lecture Room LR-3 (first floor), Thom Building, Department of Engineering Science, 17 Parks Rd, Oxford OX1 3PJ