Basic Computing Services in the Physics Department

The inherent need and support for computing in the Physics Department varies greatly depending on the specific research, but it has become clear over the years that the availability of a basic computing service is essential and enables innovation in any area of research. The Physics Department has therefore decided to provide basic computing service to all its members. As the department is embarking on this new project the below described organizational structure and procedures are provisional and put in place.

The Basic Computing Service is organized through three entities. There is the Steering Committee, the Users Group and finally the Project Team. In the following we will layout the idea of how these three entities work and interact to accomplish the overall goal. While the Basic Computing Service is foreseen for the Physics Department its design only requires users to have an MIT account, thus there is no fundamental reason why other labs at MIT could not join. Entities joining would have to provide commensurate support and negotiate the terms with the Steering Committee.

Steering Committee

The Steering Committee currently consists of Profs. Mikhail Ivanov, Bolek Wyslouch, Rob Simcoe, Mark Vogelsberger and Christoph Paus (chair). The Physics Department Head serves as an ex-officio member. The committee oversees and steers the activities of the Basic Computing Services in the department making sure funding is secured and the budget is put to efficient use matching the computing needs. The committee will also encourage and support additional proposals for computing resource funding inside the department and assist and advise the provisioning of new computing resources in the context of new faculty hires or retention negotiations.

Users Group

The Users Group serves to inform the Steering Committee about the performance and needs of the Basic Computing Service. The chair of the Users Group is appointed by the chair of the Steering Committee in consultation with the Physics Department Head. The Users Group should have appropriate representation from across the Department and meet at least once a month. The chair of the Steering Committee serves ex-officio on the Users Group but the Users Group chair may hold meetings without the Steering Committee chair. The Users Group is responsible to discuss and develop conceptual solutions for users requests in communication with the Project Team. The members of the Users Group are also responsible to represent their local communities during meetings and report back to them.

Project Team

The Project Team is responsible to execute and implement the Basic Computing Service in the department in communication with the Users Group. It is composed of the researcher and postdocs that are partially funded from the budget and a number of system administrators and interested postdocs that are funded through collaborating LNS, MKI and other research groups.It will facilitate user access to the facility and ensure proper usage of the resources in agreement with the policies developed. The Project Team will also give feedback for solutions discussed and developed in the Users Group. The project Team will respond promptly to questions from email or other questions and provides dedicated support to train people using the resources. It will maintain documentation (user’s guide) and implementation examples (github).

The Users Guide is useful to read to get you started.