Breakout Room Outputs - RSEEE & WHPC Meeting 2026

Summary

During the breakout sessions, attendees discussed practical opportunities and risks around AI, regional RSE community building, sustainable computing, and research computing career pathways. This page captures the key ideas raised in each room.

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Room 1: AI in Research and Scientific Work

AI was seen as very useful for focused tasks such as visualisation support, throwaway scripts, CLI creation, and code translation.
Participants highlighted reliability concerns: outputs can look correct while still being wrong if not checked carefully.
Research integrity and metrics gaming were raised as risks if AI-generated work is not handled transparently.
Data sovereignty was a major blocker for sensitive datasets, including human genome data.
There was broad agreement that teams need more training on both practical AI use and core model limitations.

Room 2: Building a Regional RSE Community (East Anglia)

A top priority is reaching hidden RSEs: people doing software engineering in research without the formal RSE title.
Suggested outreach groups included PhDs, postdocs, non-research software engineers, and student communities.
Potential partner institutions included NBI, University of Essex, Open University, Cranfield, EBI/Sanger, Babraham, Addenbrookes/UHS, local startups, and pharma.
Suggested engagement formats included more local events, hackathons, and in-person visibility campaigns.
Long-term sustainability was linked to institutional backing rather than relying only on volunteer effort.

Room 3: Sustainable and Responsible Computing

The preferred approach was to provide carbon-impact visibility without blame, helping users make better choices.
Embodied carbon in hardware manufacturing was discussed as potentially larger than operational emissions.
Participants challenged short replacement cycles when systems remain functional but lose maintenance or software support.
Creative heat-reuse ideas included redirecting compute heat to greenhouses and community facilities.

Room 4: Research Computing and HPC Careers

Recruitment challenges included constrained funding, salary competitiveness, and specialist skill gaps.
Attendees emphasized moving from short-term project contracts to more permanent roles for continuity and retention.
There was discussion about trade-offs between embedded RSE roles and centralized team models.
Freelance and consultancy pathways were raised as additional ways to support the ecosystem.
Culture and burnout risks were highlighted, alongside the need for clearer progression and training pathways.