Harvard FAS Research Computing

Harvard FAS Research Computing
Name	Harvard FAS Research Computing
Location	Cambridge, Massachusetts
Parent	Harvard University
Established	2012

Harvard FAS Research Computing

Harvard FAS Research Computing provides centralized computational support within Harvard University for faculty, researchers, and students in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. It supports interdisciplinary projects spanning humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences by coordinating resources across Harvard College, Harvard Business School, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The unit aligns with broader university initiatives involving the Office of the Provost, the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, and the Center for Geographic Analysis.

History and mission

Founded in the early 2010s as part of Harvard's expansion of digital scholarship, the unit emerged alongside initiatives at Harvard University, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Business School, and Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Its mission reflects priorities articulated by leaders such as the Harvard Corporation, the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and associates from the Office of the Provost, responding to needs identified by principal investigators involved with projects at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and the Harvard Data Science Initiative. The program developed in parallel with national trends highlighted by agencies including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Energy, and with community practices informed by groups like the Software Carpentry and the Data Intensive Research in the Humanities initiatives.

Organizational structure and governance

The organization operates within the administrative framework of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and coordinates with the Harvard University Information Technology leadership, the Office for Scholarly Communication, and the Harvard Library system. Governance involves advisory input from faculty representatives drawn from departments such as Department of Physics (Harvard), Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology (Harvard), Department of Psychology (Harvard), Department of Economics (Harvard), and the History Department, Harvard University. Operational oversight includes collaboration with central units such as the Harvard Information Technology Leadership and external stakeholders including consortia like XSEDE, Open Science Grid, and partnerships referenced by committees analogous to those at the Association of Research Libraries. Senior staff liaise with program officers from organizations including the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Services and resources

The unit provides services ranging from high-performance computing allocations to data management planning, reproducible workflow support, and software development assistance for investigators affiliated with centers such as the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Broad Institute, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Users access services including cluster job scheduling aligned with standards promoted by the Open Grid Forum, containerization guidance informed by practices from Docker (software), and version control support linked to platforms like GitHub and GitLab. Data stewardship offerings integrate policies and tools cognate with the FAIR data principles community and archival coordination with the Harvard University Archives and collections management groups similar to the Schlesinger Library.

Research computing infrastructure

Infrastructure encompasses compute clusters, storage arrays, and cloud integration enabling projects in genomics, climate modeling, and digital humanities, with technical affinities to systems used at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Argonne National Laboratory, and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. The environment supports software stacks associated with projects from the Human Genome Project era to contemporary platforms used by teams at the Broad Institute and laboratories modeled after Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Networking and security practices align with standards observed by the Internet2 consortium and federal guidelines from agencies like the National Institutes of Standards and Technology. Resource scheduling, monitoring, and optimization draw on tools and communities linked to SLURM Workload Manager, Kubernetes, and open-source projects endorsed by the Open Source Initiative.

Partnerships and collaborations

Collaborations include academic units across Harvard such as the Harvard Kennedy School, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, as well as interinstitutional agreements with partners like Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The group participates in consortia and funding collaborations involving the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and philanthropic entities such as the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Research partnerships extend to public-sector collaborations reminiscent of engagements by the Smithsonian Institution, regional outreach with the Boston Public Library, and tool development cooperatives analogous to initiatives led by Software Carpentry and the Carpentries.

Training, outreach, and user support

Training programs encompass workshops, bootcamps, and semester courses coordinated with instructional units like the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, the Harvard Library, and the Daphne Consulting-style campus services, drawing pedagogical models from organizations such as The Carpentries and professional development frameworks comparable to those at the Association for Computing Machinery. Outreach involves faculty symposia, cross-departmental seminars featuring speakers affiliated with institutions like MIT, Stanford University, and Princeton University, and community events in partnership with entities like the Harvard Museum of Natural History. User support integrates helpdesk services, consultation clinics, and documentation portals tailored for researchers associated with laboratories including the Wyss Institute and collaborative projects at the Harvard Art Museums.

Category:Harvard University