Details

Published on Tuesday, 17 April 2018 16:00

Zach Weidner

Full Stack Developer, HUBzero
Purdue University

What is your role within SGCI and what do you do?

I work in the Extended Developer Support (EDS) service area and with the Scientific Software Collaborative (SSC) team, as well as lending a hand in any way I can.

How did you come to be a part of SGCI, and why were you intrigued by the opportunity?

I took over the position within SGCI that a former colleague had before me. It's an interesting opportunity that allows me to apply my skills in computer science to create useful tools for scientists within other disciplines. SGCI is a perfect place to do that because there's definitely a focus on bringing people together to share knowledge, and that goes for within the team as well as outside of the team.

What is the most challenging part of your work for SGCI?

While it might be one of the most intriguing parts of working for SGCI, trying to build something that's useful for a wide variety of disciplines and communities can be fairly difficult. You want it to be as useful as possible, but also very versatile. Many times it's easy to find something that helps you solve part of whatever problem you're trying to solve, but it is much more difficult to find a place that can help you solve your entire problem.

How else are you involved in the technology or gateway community?

Besides my work for SGCI, I also work at HUBzero. They've been building a platform that's been used as a scientific gateway for over 10 years now and working with the diverse needs of the users of that platform has been great.

What do you most like to do in your free time?

When I'm not working on designing and building my CPU from 7400 logic chips, I tend to play or make video games in my free time.

If you were a superhero, what superpower would you have?

Given my inability to decide on this one, I think I would take the ability to borrow or 'steal' other powers for limited times... something along the lines of Rogue's power from X-Men.