About

What is CaRCC?

CaRCC – the Campus Research Computing Consortium – is an organization of dedicated professionals developing, advocating for, and advancing campus research computing and data* and associated professions. Current focus areas include building community among research computing and data professionals, connecting the broader research computing and data ecosystem (see the People Network), professionalization and workforce development, and defining stakeholders and shared value propositions for the community at a time of accelerating change.

Recent developments to update the CaRCC Charter have drafted the following Vision and Mission:

Vision: CaRCC advances the frontiers of research by improving the effectiveness of research computing and data (RCD) professionals, including their career development and visibility, and their ability to deliver services and resources for researchers. CaRCC connects RCD professionals and organizations around common objectives to increase knowledge sharing and enable continuous innovation in research computing and data capabilities.

Mission: CaRCC communities, working groups, and our collaborating partners, advance innovation and sustainability of RCD at academic, government, and non-profit institutions. CaRCC communities connect professionals across RCD roles and organizations, including those who design and operate systems, those who work with software and data, and those who engage directly with researchers. CaRCC working groups explore and develop effective strategies, leading practices, and products that empower researchers across campuses, and at regional, national, and international scales.

CaRCC is continuously evolving and open to new ideas. Get involved! Current areas of high priority, based on survey results and discussions among participants, include the following areas:

  • CI workforce development and professionalization.
  • Connecting the national community of research computing and data professionals and promoting various facing roles, such as researcher-facing, systems-facing, stakeholder-facing, and software/data-facing.
  • Defining stakeholders and value propositions for the CI, research computing and data communities, broadly defined.
  • Understanding the current state and future roadmap for advocation, support, and sustainability of research computing on campuses and beyond.
  • Development of products that help define, support, and steward the profession of research computing and data on campuses.

CaRCC has also referred to (reflecting history and origin):

  • The funded NSF RCN award OAC-1620695 (PI: Jim Bottum) “RCN: Advancing Research and Education through a national network of campus research computing infrastructures – The CaRC Consortium”, which begot the consortium.
  • An extension of the ACI-REF** experiment, a group of campuses who banded together in an attempt to figure out how to sustain and maintain the massive growth in demand for research computing by coordinating around common researcher-facing service methodologies to develop best practices.
  • A virtual organization of committed people working to provide products that help to advance research computing and data, such as helping to define the profession, to bring communities together, and to understand the common challenges and future needs of research computing and data, broadly defined.

If you have questions about CaRCC or how to get involved, please contact us at help@carcc.org! 

Who ‘Leads’ CaRCC?

CaRCC is a community-led effort, with leadership of various activities contributed by partners and volunteers at a variety of academic institutions and supporting organizations. If you had to name the Leadership Team, it is largely the people listed below.

CaRCC Chairs

The CaRCC Chairs meet every 2-4 weeks to coordinate activities between the People Network, Working Groups & Interest Groups, and the Logistics Team (below), and includes (as of September 2021):

People Network Coordinators

The People Network is coordinated by a team of individuals, including coordinators for focused ‘tracks’ within the network.

CaRCC Logistics Team

The Logistics Team develops, coordinates, distributes, and supports the infrastructure of people and resources (email lists, Google Docs, calendars) that enable various CaRCC efforts. If you have questions about CaRCC or would like to learn more, e-mail us at help@carcc.org.

As of early 2021, the Logistics Team includes:

  • Dana Brunson, Internet2 (original Council Member, former People Network co-Coordinator and on several Working Groups)
  • Tom Cheatham, University of Utah (original Council Member, CaRCC Council Chair  and on several Working Groups)
  • Lauren Michael, UW-Madison (original Council Member, People Network co-Coordinator and on several Working Groups)
  • Patrick Schmitz, Semper Cogito (original Council Member and on several Working Groups)
  • Bob Freeman, Harvard Business School (Engagement; People Network)

Past contributors: Rich Knepper, Cornell University; Ruth Marinshaw, Stanford University

Engagement Group

The Engagement Operational Group was established in 2019 with big aims:

  • Increase the visibility of CaRCC as a professional organization and its community-driven activities, and the opportunities for individual and institutional participation
  • Identify organizations and institutions that are underrepresented or are absent, perform outreach, and encourage their participation in CaRCC.
  • Develop and prioritize short- and longer-term activities to encourage and promote participation in CaRCC-related activities
  • Coordinate with other working groups to accomplish high priority and easily completed objectives

The Engagement Team includes:

  • Cyd Burrows-Schilling, University of California San Diego
  • Tom Cheatham, University of Utah
  • Bob Freeman, Harvard Business School
  • Brian Haymore, University of Utah
  • Julie Ma, Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center
  • Claire Mizumoto, University of California San Diego
  • Tracy Smith, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

How to get involved

The Engagement Group has calls the 1st and 3rd Wednesday at 1 PM ET. If you want to contribute or help the group engage other research computing and data professionals who are not yet represented, please contact co-Chairs Bob Freeman (Harvard Business School) and Claire Mizumoto (UC San Diego).

NSF Annual Reports

You can find the CaRCC annual report to the NSF for the CaRCC RCN project:

* “Research computing and data” involves people, scholarship, and resources supporting the needs of researchers and research leveraging compute, data, networking, and software, broadly defined, including the professionals who execute and support these efforts. Whereas entities supporting research computing and data historically emerged from operating and supporting high performance computing, the needs, capabilities and technologies have sufficiently broadened the scope of research information technology to include virtualization, support for the cloud, containers, middleware, workflows, data management, data movement, compliance and security, user training, support of instruction using advanced research computing and data, on-boarding into new technologies, and deep engagement (“facilitation”) to help guide researchers.

** ACI-REF refers to the NSF OAC-1341935 “Advanced Cyberinfrastructure – Research and Educational Facilitation: Campus-Based Computational Research Support” award (PI: Bottum) that supporting building best practices and a network of facilitators support research computing on six campuses (Clemson U, Harvard U, U Wisconsin at Madison, U Southern California, U Utah, and U Hawaii).  http://aciref.org.