Research Computing Faculty Advisory Committee

Scope

The Research Computing Faculty Advisory Committee provides strategic leadership and vision to accelerate research through technology infrastructure and services. Members collaborate with Information Services and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation to leverage industry partnerships or sponsored programs to enhance and expand the impact of UO research infrastructure. The committee scope ranges from advanced networking to high performance computing, analytic processing, machine learning, specialized research applications, storage, security and compliance, policy and standards, data management, and computationally intensive research support across a wide range of disciplines.

Responsibilities

  • Provide input on investments, use and support of computational research technologies, research and academic technology needs, new research technologies and services, and Data Center facilities
  • Review research computing service offerings and support, and make recommendations to meet current and emerging campus needs with a focus on efficient and effective stewardship of resources
  • Advise on priorities, policies, standards, and allocations of research computing resources and services
  • Advise on effective communications and channels to reach faculty, staff and students
  • Advocate for acquisition and adoption of centralized, shared, scalable resources and increased adoption of research computing across a wide range of disciplines
  • Advise on how RACS can best enable researchers to compete for external funding and resource allocations and conduct leading-edge research
  • Identify strategic partnerships and opportunities for aggregation and collaboration where there are common practices and support needs across disciplines, departments, and schools
  • Encourage state, national, and international partnerships with other research institutions

Key Objectives

  • Review current and future Research IT Services and priorities
  • Advise on the development of a business and cost-recovery model
  • Help establish base allocations and fair use of shared resources
  • Identify storage needs and tiers
  • Advise on third party cloud considerations
  • Address security, compliance, and data management
  • Provide input on Data Center facilities

Committee Membership

Co-Chairs:

  • Josef Dufek, Gwen and Charles Lillis Chair and Professor, Director of the Center for Volcanology, Department of Earth Sciences
  • Dan Majchrzak, Director, Research Advanced Computing Services

Members:

  • Marina Guenza, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
  • Gabriele Hayden, Associate Librarian, Head of Data Services, University Libraries
  • Ben Hutchinson, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, Department of Psychology
  • Patrick Kennedy, Senior Research Associate for the Center on Teaching and Learning
  • Andrew Kern, Evergreen Professor of Biology and the Institute of Ecology and Evolution
  • Kris Kyle, Associate Professor of Language Teaching Studies, Department of Linguistics
  • Jake Searcy, Research Assistant Professor of Data Science and Institute for Fundamental Science
  • Jolinda Smith, MR Physicist, Lewis Center for Neuroimaging
  • Stacey Wagner, Assistant Vice President for Master’s Programs, Knight Campus

Ex-Officio:

  • Christy Long, Associate CIO for Technology Infrastructure and Chief of Staff
  • Mark Allen, HPC Architect, Research Advanced Computing Services