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Welcome to 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 (see the People Network), connecting the broader research computing and data ecosystem, professionalization and workforce development, and defining stakeholders and shared value propositions for the community at a time of accelerating change.

More info at https://carcc.org/about/.

* Research computing & data involves people, scholarship, and resources… (more…)

Nexus Day Staff and Student Workforce Development Summary

During the Nexus Day event, held July 10, 2022 in conjunction with the PEARC22 conference, we held an all-day workshop to address student workforce programs and staff onboarding and workforce development practices. Although we intended to spend much of the time addressing both the staff and student workforce issues together, we quickly determined that breakout sessions specific to staff or student development efforts would be more effective and provide an excellent forum to discuss common themes and exchange ideas.

There was a general recognition that common problems and challenges span the two efforts, and there is a desire to address them collectively through shared tools and methodologies and by developing a common framework. Specifically, there was an aspiration to develop a set of learning paths, starting as early as undergraduate RCD staff and continuing through senior-level RCD professionals, to identify existing gaps in training and development. However, it was also recognized that specifics would differ between staff and student development – even though many of the tools, documentation, and basic framework may be the same. Interesting outcomes included a shared desire to develop basic materials, such as  a five-minute video on “What is a Research Computing and Data Professional?”, as well as a collective agreement on the need for and value of project management skills and training for those working in research computing and data (RCD).

Student Workforce Development

The student workforce development breakout sessions at Nexus Day 2022 allowed participants from institutions looking to start a student workforce program to interact with those from institutions with established programs. After an opening discussion, session participants spent time brainstorming a set of information that would be valuable for groups looking to start a new student program. 

Based on this input and the subsequent discussions, three top priorities were identified: 

  • Obtaining information about successful student programs
  • Learning about resources for mentor development
  • Gathering ideas for establishing funding sustainability  

In the afternoon, workshop attendees tackled the first of these priorities by developing a specific set of questions to ask those with established student programs in order to yield useful information for those just starting a program. At the end of the workshop, we had the first draft of a survey of student programs – with special thanks to Scott Coughlin from Northwestern University for creating the document.

We left the workshop excited to move forward with the growth of the CaRCC Student Workforce Development interest group.

Staff Workforce Development

The staff workforce development breakout identified four areas that were discussed independently: mentoring; tools and documentation; training; and measuring value (KPI, ROI, value proposition). After the resulting discussions were compared with those from the Student workforce track, career advancement was identified as another important topic for both the staff and student development efforts. The combined topics were then ranked by the participants, generating the following top topics of interest: 

  • Tools and documentation 
  • Mentoring
  • Measuring value.

Participants in the RCD staff and student workforce workshop were in agreement that new resources are needed for RCD staff and student workforce development. However, it was also recognized that there are a number of good resources already available that should be curated and documented. Developing these resources is a main goal of the RCD Nexus portal and Nexus Day laid the groundwork to begin forming working groups to address these gaps. These resources can provide

CaRCC/RCD Nexus 2022 Retrospective

Greetings, research computing and data (RCD) professionals! As we usher in the New Year, CaRCC and RCD Nexus would like to take a moment to look back on and celebrate some of our community’s exciting accomplishments in 2022: 

To formalize and ensure community input and evaluation, CaRCC formed a new Advisory Committee and held its first annual meeting in January, 2022. The group consists of 12 members selected for their leadership and expertise within the broader RCD and cyberinfrastructure landscape. The group is instrumental in long-term planning as CaRCC continues a period of rapid growth. 

We ramped up the work of our RCD Nexus NSF Cyberinfrastructure Center of Excellence (CI CoE) pilot grant, and began to provide more resources than ever before to both the CaRCC and broader RCD community. The RCD Nexus website currently serves as the CaRCC Career and Resource Center. 

In May, 2022, CaRCC activity leaders, advisory committee members, and peers from across the RCD community met in Denver and joined remotely for a Strategic Planning Meeting. The meeting included discussion around CaRCC’s role in defining a framework for an RCD-CI professional society.

CaRCC has helped to facilitate the RCD Community Builders Group, a collaborative effort among nine RCD-CI organizations working together to support the community at-large. The group has been meeting monthly since March 2022. Additionally, CaRCC has formalized a partnership and collaboration with the CASC organization and had two meetings and presentations during which the groups discussed opportunities for collaboration. 

Continue reading “CaRCC/RCD Nexus 2022 Retrospective”

People Network Calls to Kick Off the New Year

Mark your calendars for these upcoming People Network calls (Zoom details at the end). Per usual in January, we’ll host the CaRCC Parade to provide a community update on CaRCC activities in the last year.

Mark your calendars and join via the usual People Network Zoom room (see further below). For handy calendar entries, try the CaRCC Events Calendar. We also highlight other calls from our RCD Ecosystem partners and collaborators, as these events touch many, if not all, in our community.

If you’re not on our mailing lists, please fill out our Join the People Network form and join our Slack channels.

Annual CaRCC Parade!

Tue, 1/24, 4-5pm ET / 3-4pm CT / 2-3pm MT / 1-2pm PT
Join us for the annual CaRCC Parade, where we’ll celebrate activities and accomplishments from the past year. Call document and presentation slides are forthcoming. See you there!

Data-Facing Track (1st Tuesdays)

Casual Tuesday Community Roundtable
Tue, 01/03, 1p ET/ 12p CT/ 11a MT/ 10a PT
We want to take this month to hear a bit about what everyone is up to. This session will be a general sharing and free-form brainstorming session. We’d love to hear 3-5 minutes about projects that people are working on currently or new developments. If you’re stuck on something, feel free to bring that forward and get advice from the brain trust. We can also make breakout rooms for deeper discussions that arise.

Strategy and Policy-Facing Track (1st Wednesdays)

Canceled, replaced with Conference Proposal session (see separate email).

Continue reading “People Network Calls to Kick Off the New Year”

Make the list! Submit your RCD Capabilities Model Assessment by December 15

The 2022 Research Computing and Data (RCD) Capabilities Model Community Dataset participation window will close on December 15, 2022. Please be sure to contribute your assessment using this form before you leave for winter break!

We are grateful to the following institutions who participated in 2020/21 and would love to see your institution’s name join this year’s list:

  • Arizona State University
  • Boston University
  • Chaminade University of Honolulu
  • Cornell University
  • George Mason University
  • Kennesaw State University
  • Michigan State University
  • North Carolina State University
  • Northwestern University
  • Purdue University
  • Rochester Institute of Technology
  • Rutgers University
  • Southern Methodist University
  • Tennessee Tech University
  • The Ohio State University
  • University of Alberta
  • University of British Columbia
  • University of California Berkeley
  • University of California Los Angeles
  • University of California Merced
  • University of California San Diego
  • University of California Santa Barbara
  • University of Cincinnati
  • University of Florida
  • University of Guam
  • University of Hawaii at Hilo
  • University of Hawaii System
  • University of Hawaii West Oahu
  • University of Kentucky
  • University of Maryland, College Park
  • University of Massachusetts Boston
  • University of Rhode Island
  • University of South Carolina
  • University of South Dakota
  • University of Utah
  • University of Washington
Continue reading “Make the list! Submit your RCD Capabilities Model Assessment by December 15”

Annual CaRCC Party and People Network Calls in December

Season’s Greetings to all members of the CaRCC People Network! 

Mark your calendars for these end-of-year People Network calls (Zoom details at the end), including the December 8 Annual CaRCC Party! For handy calendar entries, try the CaRCC Events Calendar. We also highlight other calls from our RCD Ecosystem partners and collaborators, as these events touch many, if not all, in our community.

If you’re not on our mailing lists, please fill out our Join the People Network form and join our Slack channels.

Annual CaRCC Party!

Thu, 12/8, 1-2:30p ET/ 12-1:30p CT/ 11a-12:30a MT/ 10-11:30a PT/  8-9:30a HT
Join us for a 90-minute end-of-year party! We’ll have mixer breakout rooms, voting on the most festive apparel and Zoom backgrounds (come prepared!), prizes, games, and optional reflection discussions about the People Network and SC22. More details are captured in the call document. See you there!

Emerging Centers Track

(3rd Wednesdays; shifted for this month)
The Business Side of HPC Centers: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Scott Yockel, PhD, University Research Computing Officer, Harvard University
Wed, 12/14, 12p ET/ 11a CT/ 10a MT/ 9a PT/ 7a HT
Note the date change to Wednesday, Dec. 14 to accommodate holiday schedules!!! We are excited to have Scott Yockel share his extensive experience with the business side of running HPC Centers.  

No calls in December for the Data-Facing, Researcher-Facing, Strategy- and Policy-Facing, and Systems-Facing tracks in lieu of the CaRCC Party! The Strategy- and Policy-Facing Track will not have its usual call in January (given the early-January timing).

Continue reading “Annual CaRCC Party and People Network Calls in December”

November People Network Calls, CaRCC Winter Party Dec. 8!

Greetings to all members of the CaRCC People Network! 

Mark your calendars for these upcoming People Network calls (Zoom details at the end). For handy calendar entries, try the CaRCC Events Calendar. We also highlight other calls from our RCD Ecosystem partners and collaborators.

And mark your calendars for the annual CaRCC Winter Party, December 8, 1-2:30pm ET / 10-11:30am PT!

If you’re not on our mailing lists, please fill out the Join the People Network form and join our Slack channels.

Data-Facing Track (1st Tuesdays)

The ICPSR Research Data Ecosystem, Jeannette Jackson, University of Michigan ICPSR
Tue, Nov 1, 1p ET/ 12p CT/ 11a MT/ 10a PT

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is an international consortium of more than 750 academic institutions and research organizations. The ICPSR provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for the social science research community and is building the Research Data Ecosystem (RDE) funded by the National Science Foundation. The RDE will make research data accessible to broaden participation in the frontiers of scientific research. It will accomplish this goal by modernizing the existing software platform so that it supports the entire research lifecycle with an enhanced user experience to increase the ability of researchers to safely and securely access, connect, store, and manipulate data. This presentation will present some of the challenges and experience in implementation of the RDE along with details about implementation, access and usage.

Strategy and Policy-Facing Track (1st Wednesdays)

Highlights from CASC, EDUCAUSE, and the NSF Cybersecurity Summit, reports and discussion
Wed, Nov 2, 12p ET/ 11a CT/ 10a MT/ 9a PT

Continue reading “November People Network Calls, CaRCC Winter Party Dec. 8!”

Help spread the word: 2022 Capabilities Model Assessment — Due December 15

2022 Research Computing and Data (RCD) Capabilities Model Community Dataset participation window will close on December 15, 2022. Please be sure to contribute your assessment using this form before you leave for winter break. 

Know of other institutions that might be interested in participating? Please help us reach them by passing this information along!

Continue reading “Help spread the word: 2022 Capabilities Model Assessment — Due December 15”

October 2022: Upcoming CaRCC People Network & Community Calls

Mark your calendars for these upcoming People Network calls (Zoom details at the end). For handy calendar entries, try the CaRCC Events Calendar. We also highlight other calls from our RCD Ecosystem partners and collaborators, as these events touch many, if not all, in our community.

We’d also like to announce our new Strategy & Policy-facing Track! Many months in the works, this track is coordinated by Melissa Cragin (SDSC/UCSD) and Patrick Schmitz (Semper Cogito), and already has a robust steering committee. Many thanks to these volunteers for stepping forward, and we hope you will join us when the track has its inaugural call on Wed 10/5 at 12p.

Continue reading “October 2022: Upcoming CaRCC People Network & Community Calls”

Career Arcs paper wins Phil Andrews award at PEARC22!

Career Arcs WG members presented our paper “Understanding Factors that Influence Research Computing and Data Careers” at the PEARC22 conference in Boston. The paper was awarded Best Full Paper, Workforce Development, Training, Diversity, and Education, as well as the Phil Andrews award, granted to a manuscript deemed to be the most impactful in practice of research computing. See also the University of Central Florida post and the CI Compass post.

The primary objective of this research was to identify factors that attract professionals into the field of research computing and data, factors that influence their career advancements or changes within the RCD field, and factors that cause them to leave and pursue other fields.

Ranking of factors defining “Advancement”, sliced by RCD Career Stage.
Continue reading “Career Arcs paper wins Phil Andrews award at PEARC22!”