Introducing the HEACIT (High Energy Codes, Interfaces, and Tools) Working Group

The HEACIT collaboration is a working group that seeks to identify how the landscape of astrophysical software enables or can improve the impact of high energy astrophysical data. This includes maximizing the return of current and future observations, as well as increasing their usability and interoperability with datasets at other wavelengths. HEACIT is not technically associated with any particular software package, but HEACIT members include developers of high energy software packages such as XSPEC, SPEX, Sherpa, and ISIS. The goal of the working group is to connect developers, align on standard practices and collaborate on future development, while allowing for and preserving the diversity of available high energy tools and workflows. We also seek to provide a community forum for high energy observers and data analysts so that software developers can understand and work towards enabling next generation science.