[BLDG-SIM] ESP-r Developers Conference 2007 - announcement

[Jon Hand (clcv10)]

Announcement:  ESP-r Developers Conference

Venue:  Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of  
Strathclyde, Glasgow Scotland

Date: 22-24 March 2007

Cost: 100 Pounds (to cover lunches and refreshments and  
administrative overheads)

The Energy Systems Research Unit of the University of Strathclyde are  
pleased to announce the 3rd ESP-r Developers Conference to be held in  
Glasgow this March.

Overview

Much has happened since the ESP-r community last gathered:

q       ESP-r is well into its transition from using X11 graphics to  
the multi-platform GTK graphics tool kit.

q       A Beta version of windows ESP-r has been released.

q       Self-extracting installers have been introduced for each of  
the major computing platforms.

q       ESP-r development has been placed under a central source code  
repository - there have been more than 700 commits to the repository  
since March of 2006!

q       A formal testing procedure for source code developments has  
been put in place.

q       The Install process has been rewritten, and new features  
added.  For example, it is no longer necessary for ESP-r to be  
located in /usr/esru

q       A new email list for the core development team is up and  
running providing notification of changes in each of the development  
branches.

q       New Exemplar models and facilities for managing model  
variants have been introduced.

q       Many new features have been added. For example: new detailed  
component models have been developed for plant and commercial scale  
systems models have been developed; contaminant tracking and coupling  
of CFD to building models have been made more user friendly.

One of the functions of the conference will be to highlight these  
developments. However the main focus will be to discuss the options  
for continuing the development of ESP-r into the future.

Conference Details

The conference will cover a range of topics relating to the future  
development of ESP-r. Each session will feature presentations and a  
discussion on an important development topic. Each session will be  
moderated and the discussion and outcomes will be recorded with a  
view to producing conference proceedings and a development strategy  
document.

Thursday session 1: Introduction and Review

Opening announcements and a review of the current state of ESP-r.

Thursday session 2: Development Issues

There are two issues that confront the community, which ultimately  
will dictate the survival of the code:

q       ESP-r needs to attract new users, as it is from new users  
that new developers emerge. Currently ESP-r, while being an  
incredibly powerful tool, does not conform to novice user  
expectations, the result being that new users are discouraged from  
using the tool and consequently lose many potential developers.  How  
can we evolve the tool to develop a thriving user community?

q       ESP-r has recently passed several critical CEN standards but  
is continually confronted by changes in regulatory standards and the  
need to evolve so as to gain accreditation. What opportunities exist  
to fund vital accreditation work?

This session will evolve a list of tasks and issues to carry forward  
to subsequent sessions.

Thursday session 3: Interface

The ESP-r interface has served the community well, however a lack of  
funding has limited development and in its current form problems are  
emerging as highlighted above for new users but also in the general  
development and management of simulation projects. These problems  
could be addressed by leveraging the substantial wealth of interface  
widgets that GTK offers to bring ESP-r in line with user  
expectations.  However there is currently a lack of interface  
development in the community to progress this task at an acceptable  
pace.

This session is focused on finding the means to accelerate the  
evolution of the interface and developing the guidelines and key  
objectives for future interface development.

Thursday evening dinner

Details TBC

Friday session 1: Mainstreaming Advanced Features

ESP-r has a number of lesser-used advanced features that require a  
lot of expert knowledge to use, effectively hiding them from the user  
community. This session is focused on developing a strategy to bring  
the power of ESP-r’s advanced features to the rest of the community.

Friday session 2: Improving Information Retrieval

ESP-r produces a wealth of data from a simulation yet there are  
significant issues as to how this data is stored and analysed.  
Simulation information is often scattered across several results  
libraries. Further, information data such as fan power or the overall  
performance of environmental systems made up from a network of  
detailed components needs to be derived from the raw simulation data  
and involves significant user effort. Finally it is difficult to  
compare the performance of different model variants.

This session is focused on improving results processing facilities to  
better support performance analysis.  The session will also seek to  
identify where critical model  attributes need to be extended in  
order to deliver more appropriate performance information.

Friday session 2: Source Code Control [Hands On]

The move to subversion has had many implications for the evolution of  
ESP-r. This session is designed to introduce the mechanics of source  
code control to the development community. Features:


q       Review of the structure of the archive and working practices.

q       45 min workshop with hands-on experience in the use of  
subversion tasks and the development cycle

q       Open discussion on how we leverage source code control to  
work in distributed teams and to tackle major projects.


Friday session 4: Wrap-up and outcomes

This session brings together the consensus from the earlier sessions  
(session chairs report) for discussion and decision making.

The goal of the session is a list of specific actions, likely  
contributors and potential  resources which can be distributed to the  
community at the end of the conference.


If you would be interested in attending please reply by return e- 
mail. Further details will be sent soon

  [  ] I would like to attend.
       Name:
       Organisation:
       email:
       telephone:

Further information:

[  ] I would like to moderate a session
      session name:_________

[  ] I have a presentation for one of the sessions
      session name:_________
      title of presentation:___________
      length of presentation [ max. 10 minutes]

[  ] I want to take part in the Saturday subversion skills workshop

[  ]  I have a source code branch
       branch name:________

[  ]  I am thinking about joining the development community

[  ]  I have an idea for the development of ESP-r and I want to find  
others to work with:
       development description:____
       skills I have:____
       ideas for contributions by others:____


Regards,

-ESRU

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