The view from the office

EDIT: Feel free to contact me by twitter DM as well: http://twitter.com/jmckenty

As most of you have by now figured out from my FourSquare stream, I’ve been spending a fair bit of time in Europe. In fact, I’ve taken a sabbatical from NASA to work on the Global Earthquake Model. This international project is headquartered in Pavia, Italy, with the bulk of the development team in Zurich, Switzerland, at the ETH university.

I’m helping to reboot the project. In fact, we’re changing everything – language (from exclusively Java to mostly Python), methodology (from a traditional waterfall approach to agile using Scrum), and development approach (continuous integration and test-driven development FTW).

Everyone, by now, has heard about the Haiti earthquake. You know that more than 250,000 people (roughly 40% of the affected population) died. What you might not have realized, is that similar sized earthquakse in California routinely kill only dozens. The difference?

Without earthquake models, you can’t assess hazard.

Without hazard assessment, you can’t make building codes that are appropriate for the seismic risk.

Without building codes (and the right kind of building reinforcement, even for traditional construction techniques), most of a large city turns into rubble.

Without software, people die.

Here’s a quote from our job posting (full link at http://www.globalquakemodel.org/system/files/SED_GEM-Software_Engineer.pdf):

GEM, the Global Earthquake Model, is a non-profit, international effort to tackle the understanding of earthquake risk worldwide. In parallel with our scientific and diplomatic efforts, we are developing a unique, open-source software system that computes all aspects of earthquake hazard, risk, and impact. This is high-performance, scientific computing at its finest. And you could be a part of it.

We’re looking for only the best and brightest, regardless of where you currently are in the world, to come to Zurich and join a small, tight-knit team of engineers, scientists, and software developers. If you’ve got the aptitude and attitude, we’ll train you in the rest.

That’s right – we’re writing open-source software to save lives. Who’s with me?