Support for Scientific Challenge Teams

Many of the most important breakthroughs in computational science are expected to come from large, multidisciplinary, multi-institutional collaborations working with advanced codes and large datasets. These teams are in the best position to take advantage of terascale computers and petascale storage, and NERSC provides its highest level of support to these researchers—even when the opportunity to contribute to scientific discovery arrives on short notice, as it did with the KamLAND project described below.

Science-of-Scale and SciDAC Projects

The science-of-scale and SciDAC projects described above in the Science Highlights section are the primary recipients of NERSC’s high-level support. Many of the special requirements of the science-of-scale projects and the special services NERSC provided are described in that section. Special services that were provided to SciDAC projects, particularly the Integrated Software Infrastructure Centers, included:

• specialized consulting support
• special service coordination for queues, throughput, increased limits, etc.
• specialized algorithmic support
• special software support
• visualization support
• conference and workshop support
• Web sever support for some projects
• consulting support to help projects organize and manage Web content
• CVS servers and support for community code management.

SciDAC will be the catalyst for a fundamental shift in computational science from the principal-investigator model to the collaborative team model. Facilitating this transition is an important part of NERSC’s mission.