Agile Computer Control of a Complex Experiment

• Published in: Computing in science & engineering Vol. 10; no. 2; pp. 55 - 59
• Main Author: Varoquaux, Gaël
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-03-2008; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE); Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: agile computing; Atomic Physics; Clocks; Computation; Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science; Computer control; Computer programs; Computer Science; Control equipment; Culture; Delay; experimental control; frameworks; Guidelines; Hardware; Physics; Python; Scientists; Software; Software design; Software Engineering; Software tools; Timing; Visualization; Writing; frameworks; experimental control; agile computing; Python; hardware
• ISSN: 1521-9615; 1558-366X
• DOI: 10.1109/MCSE.2008.47

Scientists are skilled with computers, and main of them understand the intricacy of numerical computing. Yet, designing the sophisticated software architecture that controls an experiment requires different skills, and small- and mid-sized experimental labs often lack a software engineering culture. Bad design choices plague experimental labs even though the real experimental difficulty seldom lies in the software itself. In this article, I give some guidelines for designing an experiment's control software based on my experience in various Bose-Einstein condensation labs. I explore the tools and patterns that lead to successful projects - in particular, a flexible and reliable code base that lets scientists cope with a research lab's ever-changing goals and resources.