The field Software Engineering is of interest for professionals with a job profile that matches or is close to

• A Software Engineer aka Developer designs, develops and/or configures software to meet detailed requirements. Their focus of work are projects which create new IT services and functionalities. When IT services are operated, they are involved when extensions or modifications of the functionalities are required. The software engineer is also responsible for the (automated) unit tests, regression tests, builds and technical documentation. They install and configure development, test and operational environments (DevOps).
   
• Sometimes a Software Engineer is called Software Architect or ICT Architect. This is the case when requirements are not yet detailed and an entire most suited development stack or landscape, possibly including COTS, frameworks and libraries, must be defined. Also, there is often an existing such landscape, likely sub-optimal and 'legacy' constrained, and the path towards a more ideal landscape must be shaped and described by the Software/ICT Architect.

The Software Engineer / Software Architect in small settings directly interacts/contracts with the customer. In medium to large settings, they collaborate with Business Analysts (responsible for the business requirements), Project Managers (responsible for plans and status reports), User Experience Specialists (responsible for the UI basic and detailed requirements), Quality and Security Specialists (for respective requirements) and IT Operation (taking over the developer builds for productive operation).

Software Engineers often specialise for a technology/methodology (e.g. Java, .Net/Microsoft, Data Science + Analysis, Machine Learning, AI, ...). But at SI, we focus on the fundamental common best-practices. The roles of 'Backend Developer' and 'Frontend Developer' are sometimes distinguished - with 'Full-stack Developer' merging both roles. The Frontend Developer is close with the User Experience Specialist, cf. the SI field of interest User Experience.

CHOOSE, the Swiss Group for Original and Outside-the-box Software Engineering, is a special interest group of the SI (Swiss Informatics Society). CHOOSE pushes the boundaries of software engineering at the intersection of programming languages, model-based engineering, visual analytics, NLP, AI, and other emerging technologies.
We support researchers in exploring better ways of crafting software and bridging the gap between research and industry. We sponsor students and organize forums where researchers and industry professionals exchange ideas.

SAUG (Swiss APL User Group) is focussed on the use of APL (A Programming Language) due to its special properties.

APL was originally not a computer programming language like "Fortran", "C", "Pascal" etc. , but a mathematical/logical notation developed in the 1960s by Kenneth E. Iverson, a young Harvard lecturer. IBM recognized the potential of APL and hired Iverson as well as some of his colleagues to implement Iverson's notation on a computer. This implementation (using Fortran) quickly showed that APL could be used to program complex questions. It was continued using the now current acronym APL or "A Programming Language". The power of APL operators/functions is due to their automatic data structure penetration and special operators. This eliminates the need for many control structures. Nested data structures (nested arrays) were only added with the 2nd APL generation. This made it the ideal tool to process data from relational databases where SQL reaches its limits. It can in turn also be used to make external data from other sources available for SQL.

Although applications in insurance, finance and statistics are most commonly attributed to APL, it offers broader application: analyze log files across lines and files, check CSV files for validity and eliminate any errors, handle theoretical numbers questions. AI algorithms or fractals also fit into the concept of APL. The pervasiveness of APL could even find application in quantum computers.

The APL system vendor world is very innovative. At SAUG, such innovations are presented and portability between different systems is highlighted (and solved as best as possible). Various topics are discussed at quarterly "SAUG Labs." In each case, a SAUG member or guest gives a presentation on a key topic.

SI-SE, the SI Special Interest Group on Software Engineering, was founded in 1994 in order to support continuous education in the area of software engineering. In close cooperation with the ITG-SE special interest group of Electrosuisse, SI-SE organises events for software engineering professionals.

The goals of SI-SE are to

• foster professional, modern software engineering in Switzerland,
• facilitate networking and continuing education for software engineers in Switzerland.

Events

View our planned and past events.

SI-SE is currently lead by the co-presidents Professor Karl Rege (ZHAW) and Dominik Wotruba (Red Hat).