The Software behind the Higgs Boson Discovery
In this column, David Rousseau describes the enormous software development effort associated with teasing out evidence for the elusive Higgs boson, a cornerstone of the Standard Model. In keeping with previous Impact columns, everything about this is huge but the application is unique.
Quantifying Software's Impact
Software's impact on various industries is the topic of 15 columns published in IEEE Software since 2010. This article describes how to quantify software's impact using metrics such as compound average growth rate and software mileage.
Data Driven Policy: The Case for Certification Research
This article describes the program of research being implemented to investigate the outcomes of certification in the U.S. and Canadian workforce and its relevance to the goal of providing policy makers with pragmatic, action-oriented recommendations. Such recommendations encompass policy issues of workforce production, regulation, distribution, financing, and oversight of credentialing organizations. Few studies exist to substantiate the association between certification credentialing and practice outcomes, thereby leaving policy makers, consumers, and nurses in a vacuum when pushed to protect the public through the credentialing vehicles. The Nursing Credentialing Research Coalition (NCRC) has embarked on a research program that will reveal the relationship between certification and its influence on a nurse’s personal, professional, and practice characteristics as well as those judged by consumers and employers. Selected findings and implications for policy are described. Certified nurses’ reports of early interventions for complications are important quality measures for policy.