PEARC – CARK

Join us for RCD Nexus Day at PEARC23!

Registration is now open for the second annual RCD Nexus Day, a one-day workshop and networking event just for research computing and data (RCD) professionals on Sunday July 23, 9am-7pm preceding the PEARC23 Conference in Portland, OR. It’s an official PEARC co-located event, and there’s no additional cost to attend. Connect with your peers as we explore the topics that matter to you and your RCD career, including:

Student and staff workforce development topics and practices
Understanding the RCD Capabilities Model assessment tools, and how best to use them at your institution (details below)

The event will be held at the main conference venue, the Oregon Convention Center. Space is limited and last year the event reached capacity, so don’t wait to register!

Travel support is available for those at U.S. institutions who request it by June 28. Just indicate your need when you register and we’ll send further information.

Check back here for a detailed agenda — coming soon!

Nexus Day Staff and Student Workforce Development Update

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).

Read more below about how each of these efforts is evolving:

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.

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.*

CaRCC Activities at PEARC21

Greetings to members of the Campus Research Computing (CaRCC) Communities!

The PEARC21 Virtual Conference (July 19-22) is almost here. Be sure to attend the many great workshops, tutorials, presentations, and panels from persons in the community. And here are some of the CaRCC-related activities you won’t want to miss:

PEARC20 – Call for Participation: First deadline January 22, 2020

Sharing on behalf of the PEARC20 Program Committee:

Deadlines: (Updated Jan 8)

January
- January 22nd: Tutorial submissions due
- January 22nd: Workshop submissions due
February:
- February 17th: Technical track full paper submissions due
- February 17th: Lightning Talk Abstracts submissions due
- February 24th: Student technical track full paper submissions due
April
- April 24th: Poster submissions due
- April 24th: Student posters submissions due
May
- May 1st: Panel submissions due
- May 1st: BOF submissions due
- May 1st: Viz Showcase submissions due
- May 15th: All camera-ready submissions due

PEARC20 will explore the current Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing, including modeling, simulation, and data-intensive computing. PEARC20 will be in Portland, OR from July 26th-30th, 2020. This year’s theme, “Catch the Wave,” embodies the spirit of the community’s drive to stay in front of the new waves in technology, analytics, data, visualization, and a globally connected and diverse workforce.

PEARC20 brings together community thought leaders, CI professionals, and students to learn, share ideas, and craft the infrastructure of the future. The PEARC20 student program will provide students with a range of opportunities to participate in both student activities and the full technical program so that they may share their research efforts and gain insights and inspiration from like-minded individuals at the conference.

For more information, visit https://pearc.acm.org/pearc20/program/call-for-participation.