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Software Development and Applications Support

Software development: Software for analyzing scientific data requires an extensive, robust, and reliable cyberinfrastructure. And, to realize its full benefits, this cyberinfrastructure must be as accessible and usable as web browsers have made access to the internet. NCSA develops the tools and integrated, end-to-end software systems – cyberenvironments – required to meet the challenge.

Applications support: Scientists and researchers across disciplines use the cyberinfrastructure, both developing their own software and using community codes. NCSA provides computational and domain experience to ensure the best use of the cyberinfrastructure, from systems at NCSA such as Blue Waters, to national resources such as those connected by the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE).

NCSA Software Development and Application Groups

NCSA Research Groups that Develop and Support Software

Exemplar Software Products

  • Bro – powerful network analysis framework that focuses on network security monitoring, and provides a comprehensive platform for more general network traffic analysis
  • Brown Dog – providing “data transformations as a service” Brown Dog facilitates data wrangling by providing metadata harvesting/extraction and format conversions to both index and access diverse datasets
  • Cactus Code – open source problem-solving environment designed for scientists and engineers, with a modular structure to easily enable parallel computation across different architectures and collaborative code development between different groups
  • CILogon – service facilitating secure single sign on access to cyberinfrastructure (CI) via a number of available credentials (e.g. university credentials)
  • Clowder – web-based content repository for structured and unstructured data providing a platform for automatic metadata extraction, automatic data previews, distributed/heterogeneous data sources, social curation, provenance, and data publication
  • Cyclus – next-generation agent-based nuclear fuel cycle simulator, providing flexibility to users and developers through a dynamic resource exchange solver and plug-in, user-developed agent framework
  • DataWolf – web-based scientific workflow system
  • Einstein Toolkit – community-driven software platform of core computational tools to advance and support research in relativistic astrophysics and gravitational physics
  • ERGO – hazard modeling and management service allowing responders to rapidly address emergency scenarios (e.g. earthquakes, tornadoes, fires, etc.)
  • Geodashboard – customizable portal allowing users to navigate, download and visualize field sensor data
  • MyProxy – software for managing X.509 Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) security credentials (certificates and private keys)
  • NDS Labs Workbench – catalog and “platform as a service” infrastructure for discovery, evaluation and education around community data management, and analysis tools/services
  • Parsl – Python-based parallel scripting library based on the Swift parallel scripting language
  • PEcAn – gateway for ecological modeling and sensitivity analysis
  • Virtual Director™ – virtual reality interface enabling gestural motion capture and voice control of navigation, editing, and recording in the CAVE, ImmersaDesk™, and Infinity Wall™
  • XRAS – web-based resource allocation and user-management software used in XSEDE
  • yt – open-source, permissively-licensed python package for analyzing and visualizing volumetric data

Historical NCSA Software

  • NCSA Mosaic™ – first popular web browser
  • NCSA Telnet – first implementation of the telnet protocol for the Macintosh/PC that provided the ability to connect to multiple hosts simultaneously
  • NCSA HTTPd – early web server, powered most of the web as of August 1995
  • HDF – Hierarchical Data Format, a set of portable scientific data file formats designed to store and organize large amounts of data
  • NCSA Habanero – collaborative framework and environment containing a set of applications to use, and APIs to convert applications into collaborative applications
  • NCSA Portfolio – 3D library for building applications

Contact Us

NCSA software development and applications support fuels discovery, community endeavors, economic development and the Illinois academic community. We look forward to working with you. If you’re:

  • a skilled and dedicated software developer, we may have an open position for you.
  • an Illinois student, please see the NCSA SPIN and INCLUSION programs or contact Olena Kindratenko, NCSA Education Coordinator, for opportunities.

Need something else, for example, software developers for your project or proposal? Contact Daniel S. Katz, Director for Scientific Software and Applications or Kenton McHenry, Deputy Director for Scientific Software and Applications

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