Schmidt Academy For Software Engineering

The Schmidt Academy is a pilot program at Caltech for computer software engineers who recently completed their undergraduate studies. The Schmidt Scholars collaborate with researchers in labs across campus to develop stable, adaptable software platforms that will enhance and accelerate scientific progress. The Academy, which was started in 2019, is designed to transform the culture of software development at Caltech by incorporating the newest techniques and technologies from software engineering directly into research groups. “Academia has fallen behind industry in best practices for software engineering,” explains Mike Gurnis, the John E. and Hazel S. Smits Professor of Geophysics and the Schmidt Academy’s inaugural director. “Through this program, we are committed to elevating software for academic research and accelerating scientific progress at Caltech. Given its success to date, we envision that the Schmidt Academy has the potential to serve as a model by which high-quality scientific software is developed at other academic research institutions.”