Users Group
The NCCS Users Group provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and development of recommendations to the NCCS regarding the center’s current and future operation and usage policies. The Users Group is made up of researchers who have active accounts on the Leadership Computing Facility compute resources. Requests for membership by others will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the NCCS.
A Steering Committee with five members leads the Users Group. This committee consists of a chairperson (2-year term), a chairperson pro tem (2-year term), an ad hoc member of the NCCS Resource Utilization Council (1-year term), and up to two members at large (1-year terms). The chair serves as a liaison between the group and NCCS management, a role that includes addressing feedback and comments from users to raise concerns to a higher level within the NCCS organization.
The Users Group identifies an ad hoc member of the NCCS Resource Utilization Council who presents feedback from the Users Group to the council on a regular basis (at least quarterly). (The council considers requests associated with queue structures, prioritization, or exceptions to computer policies.)
The NCCS Users Group meets once a year at ORNL or at a site agreed upon by the group and NCCS management. Projects are strongly encouraged to send at least one representative to the meeting. Members of the Steering Committee are nominated and elected at the annual meeting. The Steering Committee selects the officers. Amendments to the Users Group Charter may be submitted to the chairperson for subsequent consideration at the following annual users meeting.
Current Steering Committee members are combustion researcher Jacqueline Chen of Sandia National Laboratories, fusion researcher Stephan Ethier of Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and quantum chromodynamics researcher Balint Joo of Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. Chen is the current chair.
