June 30 — Campus Champions, numbering over 275 in the XSEDE project, are spread across the nation, in centers, institutes and universities in all 50 states. They dilligently spread the word about not just XSEDE, but high performance computing generally, and offer up expertise to those new to the field. In a couple of weeks, more than 100 of them are expected to take their talents to South Beach.
Approximately 100 XSEDE Campus Champions (representing 37 states, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico) will be heading to Miami to attend the XSEDE16 Annual Conference.
Campus Champions facilitate computing- and data-intensive research and education at their own institutions, helping their local researchers and educators find and use the advanced computing and data resources that best meet their needs at any level, including workgroup, institutional, state, regional, national and even international.
The Campus Champions program was created to identify and support campus representatives who serve as the local source of knowledge on high-performance computing opportunities and resources within XSEDE, empowering local researchers and educators to advance scientific discovery.
The XSEDE16 Conference provides an opportunity for champions to network, share best practices, hear success stories, collaborate, and plan for the next steps in growing, integrating, and sustaining this very impactful and successful outreach activity.
During the conference, the Champions will host an opening reception giving them the opportunity to meet and greet new champions and discuss mutually beneficial topics. The Champions will also host a BoF on Tuesdayevening which will allow for discussion around the topic of building a persistent community of cyberinfrastructure professionals. And, Thursday morning during the plenary session, a panel of Champions will discuss the emerging mandate of the XSEDE Campus Engagement program, and how this transformation will affect computing and data-intensive research and education nationwide. In their role as HPC facilitators to local researchers, Campus Champions undertake a broad array of responsibilities including:
- providing information on XSEDE and other local, regional and national cyberinfrastructure resources to researchers and educators on their campus;
- assisting campus users to quickly receive start-up allocations of computing time on various research and educational systems;
- being an ombudsperson, on behalf of the campus users of XSEDE, to capture information on problems and challenges that need to be addressed by XSEDE; and
- hosting training workshops on their campus about the use of XSEDE resources and services.
Since the program’s inception in 2008, it has become an integral component of the XSEDE project’s growth and continued success, and the Campus Champion community has grown to more than 275 highly motivated and talented campus cyberinfrastructure facilitators located at more than 215 institutions (representing every state in the United States and all EPSCoR jurisdictions except Guam). Because of the continued growth of the Champion program, the concept of a Regional Champion was instituted last year to help reach and support all of the champions on a consistent basis.
As the Campus Champions program has matured, the mission has expanded beyond the originally conceived purpose. Champions now focus on finding the best solution for their constituents at any level. In addition, the impact of the Champions now includes sharing of cyberinfrastructure challenges and solutions, leading to professional development that is improving research and education outcomes.
Champion Fellows
The current cohort of Champion Fellows will present lightning talks about their just completed Fellow projects at the Thursday morning plenary session. The goal of the Campus Champions Fellows program is to increase cyberinfrastructure expertise on campuses by including Campus Champions as partners in XSEDE’s Extended Collaborative Support Services (ECSS) projects. The Fellows program connects Campus Champions with ECSS staff and research teams to work side by side on real-world science and engineering projects. Fellows will develop expertise within varied areas of cyberinfrastructure, and they are already well positioned to share their advanced knowledge through their roles as the established conduits to students, administrators, professional staff, and faculty on their campuses.
A directory of Fellows will expand the influence even further by creating a network of individuals with these unique skill sets. In addition to the technical knowledge gleaned from their experiences, the individual Fellows will benefit from their personal interactions with the ECSS staff and will acquire the skills necessary to manage similar user or research group project requests on their own campuses. The Campus Champions Fellows program is a unique opportunity for a select group of individuals to learn first-hand about the application of high-end cyberinfrastructure to challenging science and engineering problems.
The Campus Champions and Champion Fellows look forward to meeting you at the conference!
For more information, please contact Kay Hunt, XSEDE Campus Champions Coordinator: [email protected].
Registration Details
To register, please click here. Online registration ends on July 15 at 5 p.m. ET. You will still be allowed to register onsite.
Hotel Reservations
We encourage you to make your hotel reservations as space and availability are limited. Click here to make your reservation by phone, please call (888) 424-6835 or 1-88 IC HOTELS, and reference the XSEDE16 Conference.
Source: XSEDE