The Research Software Programming service provides LSA with an in-house team of software developers dedicated to making custom software development capabilities available to faculty, research staff, and students across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences at an affordable price.
Custom software can help you do more when it comes to acquiring, processing, analyzing, and sharing information and results. See how faculty and researchers across LSA have been able to leverage custom software to advance their work by partnering with the Research Software Programming service to:
- Consolidate data sources to enable more-complex analyses
A lab that studies cognition and behavior in primate communities was having trouble comparing information from multiple studies covering years of observations to investigate long-term trends using their spreadsheet-based information management system. Migrating that information to a database-backed solution with programmatic and web-based interfaces made filtering and retrieving the information they needed easy.
- Automate time intensive and potentially error-prone processes
A graduate student needed to be able to extract cell-level regions of interest from pictures of cell cultures taken by an imaging microscope for analysis. With hundreds to thousands of images taken per experiment and hundreds of cells visible in each image, manual processing wasn't feasible. Automating the region of interest identification and extraction process enabled the lab to process the imaging microscope data at the scale they needed and laid the foundation to build an automated analysis process on top of the extraction process.
- Collect information from new sources
A lab studying human circadian rhythms wanted to acquire high fidelity data to test and improve sleep cycle models they previously developed. Creating a set of mobile applications for Apple and Android phones that allowed users to donate data from built-in and wearable health monitors allowed the lab to acquire data from new individuals without having to invest time in directly recruiting study participants.
You can explore more examples at the service's portfolio web site and learn more about what kinds of work the service can support on its Technology Services web page.
If you'd like to discuss a project with the Research Software Programming service, email [email protected] or open a new ticket requesting a consultation. A team member will reach out to discuss your project, including its scope, budget, and developer availability.
If you still have questions about how custom software can play a role in your work, drop by the Technology Services research support office hours. Team members are available to answer questions, troubleshoot programming issues, and consult on new projects for free.
