The report linked below summarizes the accomplishments of the Research Computing and CyberInfrastructure (RCCI) governance structure during the 2015-2016 academic year, along with an assessment of challenges and opportunities facing RCCI in the near future. Included are a summary of key accomplishments and ongoing projects on specific fronts from the point of view of the “research guru” office and the annual reports of each of the RCCI working groups.
Overall, RCCI is accomplishing its goal of creating a communication network between faculty researchers, university administrative offices, and IT units that have a major influence on research computing. It has created working groups that are addressing issues both narrow and broad, in the sense that some issues are specific to high-powered research (e.g. HPC systems) while others reach beyond research computing to include data governance, computing networks, compliance, software purchasing, the data center, data categorization, and IT issues in HR. Many projects are ongoing, and we have seen a desire for cooperation in relevant administrative offices, IT units, and with faculty stakeholders that is allowing us to gain traction on thorny cyberinfrastructure issues. Without the presence of RCCI, it is doubtful that many of these critical topics would be being tackled at all, let alone with broad input from the research community and other critical stakeholders.