What areas of Research Computing do you work with here at Syracuse University?
I work with research groups to understand their computing needs, and with the rest of the Research Computing team to match groups to resources on an ongoing basis.
What other responsibilities do you have on the SU campus?
None… so far!
How did you get started in Research Computing?
I started with Research Computing from the consumer side. Prior to this position I was in the Syracuse University LIGO group, and I was able to see first-hand how research computing contributed to the first direct detection of gravitational waves!
What do you find most interesting about Research Computing?
Syracuse University’s Research Computing is truly transformative. When I started in the LIGO group we managed our own cluster, which both took a good deal of effort and limited the resources at our disposal. We were able to do more and better science — and easier! — by working with Research Computing, and I look forward to sharing that experience with other researchers on campus.
What’s the biggest misconception about RC or HPC in general?
Perhaps the biggest misconception is that only high throughput computing is a good fit for what we offer. People hear “HPC” and may think of large complex simulations that require dozens of CPUs working together for days or weeks, but we can also help with high throughput computing; numerous small tasks each of which may only need a single processor for a few hours and are completely independent of each other.
If you could give RC users one piece of advice what would it be?
If you’re already an RC user, come talk to us about how we can help you expand your research efforts. And if you aren’t an RC user yet, come talk to us about how we can help you get started!