ATHENA Software Plan

Philosophy

Let’s prepare for our future at the EIC!

Software and computing will be critical to the success of any EIC experiment. Our strategy to acomplish this and ensure the long-term success is by building a forward-looking team of developers. We focus on modern scientific computing practices: modularity, orthogonal components designed for performance in heterogeneous computing environments. Our emphasis is on modern development practices built around continuous-integration, reproducible containerization and automated tests and benchmarks. At the same time, we try to choose mature, well-supported, and actively developed software components allowing us to focus our resources on those parts of the toolkit requiring custom development work.

Summarizing:

• Build forward-looking team of developers to ensure the long-term success of the EIC scientific program in software & computing.

• Focus on modern scientific computing practices

  • Strong emphasis on modular orthogonal tools

  • Integration with HTC/HPC, CI workflows, and enable use of data-science toolkits

• Avoid “not-invented-here” syndrome, and instead leverage cutting-edge CERN-supported software components where possible

• Build on top of mature, well-supported, and actively developed software stack.

• Externalize support burden where possiblе

• Actively work with the EICUG SWG to help develop and integrate community tools for all collaborations.