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| News |
| SciDAC Mission |
| SciDAC Centers and Institutes Reflect and Plan |
| The SciDAC mission focuses on the advancement of scientific discovery stemming largely from the research outcomes of the SciDAC Scientific Application Partnerships. To facilitate and accelerate this mission, the SciDAC Centers and Institutes were formed during the second phase of the SciDAC Awards in Fall 2006 ("SciDAC-2: The Next Phase of Discovery," SciDAC Review, Spring 2007, p16). Focusing on software development and infrastructure that enable current as well as future scientific advances across the Application areas, the Centers and Institutes complement the Science Application Partnerships that address computational science and discovery in specific disciplines. |
| Successful implementation of a complex and challenging endeavor like SciDAC requires periodic planning and reflection exercises along with effective communications amongst the various participants and investigators. Therefore, one year into SciDAC-2, the PIs of the Centers and Institutes gathered in Las Vegas, NV for a two day workshop to review status and accomplishments of the first year. The goal was to discuss best practices in areas ranging from the sociology of the collaborations and project planning to the communication required to make the coming years of SciDAC successful. The workshop was organized by the SciDAC Outreach Center (p9), which provides a valuable interface for SciDAC resources both to SciDAC researchers as well as interested parties from industry and academia. |
| A central theme of the workshop included identifying successful methodologies for software development at Centers and Institutes so that these can be further accentuated and their effectiveness communicated to support SciDAC's scientific application partnerships and the SciDAC Program. Building strong collaborations with applications groups is critical to the SciDAC strategy and this effort takes several forms. Some groups deliver software libraries and applications directly to large numbers of science teams, while others focus on more individualized algorithms, performance tuning, and integration work. Several best practices were identified regarding how to effectively select from these different approaches as well as how to communicate these methods and expectations to applications groups. Given the many stakeholders in SciDAC advances, it can be challenging to keep interested parties properly informed regarding resources available through SciDAC as well as accomplishments in ongoing work. |
| During the two day deliberations, Dr. Walt Polansky from the DOE Office of Science delivered a unique perspective on SciDAC that informed PIs of the many levels on which SciDAC is evaluated. Titled "SciDAC: An Outsider's View," the talk gave PIs insight into how best to maximize their success and communicate SciDAC progress and strategies to multi-level audiences. Such audiences include groups as diverse as those completely unfamiliar with the SciDAC program and its goals, interdisciplinary scientists who may be interested to learn more, as well as their SciDAC colleagues on other projects. |
| Communicating the progress made in long-term goals often involves subtleties not found in the scientific impact statements from applications groups. The workshop participants also addressed how to best direct algorithm and software design, deployment, and maintenance in ways that will serve applications groups through SciDAC-2 and beyond. "We know that we don't want to throw software over the fence; that doesn't work," said Dr. Brian Van Straalen of the APDEC Center ("APDEC: Algorithms and Software for Discovery," SciDAC Review, Summer 2007, p22), referring to the need to build reliable, durable, and usable interfaces to the technologies that Centers and Institutes are developing. |
| Amongst topics related to the sociology of the collaborations, some PIs, such as Dr. David Keyes, raised the issue of the need for all Investigators in SciDAC projects to be recognized as proper partners rather than a segregated break up into discipline scientists and enabling technology facilitators. As SciDAC is all about tripartite collaborations yielding discovery through computational science ("Scientific Discovery: Powerful, Unpredictable, and Aesthetic," p8, and "SciDAC: Leadership in Computational Science," p62, both in SciDAC Review, Spring 2006), it was felt that there needs to be a suitable appreciation and recognition of the partnership nature of the collaborations. |
A key outcome of the workshop is a plan to coordinate tutorials, workshops, and other venues between Centers and Institutes. This strategy, as witnessed for example by the tutorials day at the annual SciDAC meeting, was identified as a successful way to deliver SciDAC information and training without disrupting research schedules by planning entirely new meetings. The workshop itself was seen as a useful exercise to provide horizontal integration and communication across the different component Centers and Institutes, as well as a means to discuss ways to better utilize the resources and outreach capabilities of the SciDAC Outreach Center, which answers a wide range of inquiries about SciDAC and helps organize SciDAC information and software. A published set of notes from this workshop is forthcoming and will be disseminated by the Outreach Center later in the year.
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| Contributor: Dr. David Skinner, Director, SciDAC Outreach Center |
