Participants Invited to Name Platform Designed for Academic Researchers.
Holyoke, Massachusetts, July 11, 2018 – The Northeast Cyberteam Initiative, in partnership with the XSEDE Campus Champions Program, announced today that it will launch a national Research Computing Q&A Platform for academic researchers at the PEARC18 conference being held in Pittsburgh from July 22 through July 27. The team will present an overview of the project, walk through the site, and invite conference participants to name the Platform at a Birds of a Feather session.
Reflecting the critical role that high performance computing plays in all fields of scientific inquiry today, the Platform will aggregate answers to a broad spectrum of questions that are commonly asked as researchers utilize advanced computing resources, creating a self-service knowledge base for the community of domain researchers, facilitators, cyberinfrastructure engineers and others.
The Platform began as a project of the Northeast Cyberteam Initiative, which makes high performance computing resources more accessible to small and mid-size colleges and universities through web-based tools, and by connecting researchers with student Research Computing Facilitators (RCFs) supported by mentor RCFs. However, the Platform project quickly drew support from collaborators outside the Northeast, particularly from members of the XSEDE Campus Champions Program. The Platform already has participation from volunteers at universities in California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma and West Virginia.
“We are delighted to see such interest in the Q&A Platform because it both demonstrates that we are filling a need in the research community and ensures that it will be a robust research tool,” said John Goodhue, Principal Investigator of the Northeast Cyberteam Initiative and Executive Director of the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center.
“Our hope is that this site will become a platform for sharing frequently asked questions, comparing solutions, and generally leveraging each other’s work pertaining to research computing. Making this knowledge readily available frees up time for facilitators and engineers to focus on more advanced subject matter, thereby elevating the practice,” said Julie Ma, Project Leader of both the Northeast Cyberteam Initiative and the Research Computing Q&A Platform. “We continue to reach out to engage with others in the community, and PEARC is an ideal setting to continue this effort.”
“The Q&A platform is a great example of what groups can accomplish when working together toward a common goal,” said Dr. Dana Brunson, Assistant Vice President for Research Cyberinfrastructure, Oklahoma State University High Performance Computing Center, and co-leader of the XSEDE Campus Champions. “It will provide research computing facilitators a new way to learn and share knowledge with each other. “
