Should we have a common abstraction language?

Common abstraction language

• everything should come down to SLD
• a common vocabulary and grammar
• instruction about how to arrange

Some constraints are different from others

• But constraints are important in optimisation

Model builder to reflectometry calculation engine

• Need to consider the constraints in between this (including mathematical descriptions)

A declaritive language that is translated to something that is optimised (with feedback to the GUI)

• This will be a pain but useful for historical code and futureproofing
• It would also improve the reusability of the different models.

It is important to consider atomistic/coarse-grained simulations as input.

What novel technologies should we be investigating?

Machine learning is sexy; but is it worthwhile?

• Rapid prototyping of analysis
• Check sense of models

Analysis is more powerful with data science tools (Bayesian inference, information theory)

Need to engage users with these methods

• Particularly good for non-unique answers
• Resources for education

Machine learning is the start of the process, not the end.

• Currently a bit of a black box
• Useful for the automation of “easy” tasks
• Might be useful for assessing analysis feasibility at proposal stage