SciDAC

SciDAC
Name	SciDAC
Formation	2001
Type	United States research program
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
Parent organization	United States Department of Energy

SciDAC

SciDAC is a United States Department of Energy initiative that funds large-scale computational science projects bringing together national laboratories, University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other institutions to accelerate advances in simulation, data analysis, and high-performance computing. The program aligns with priorities set by Office of Science (United States Department of Energy), coordinates with agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and has supported collaborations involving Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and industry partners like Intel and NVIDIA.

Overview

SciDAC supports multidisciplinary teams combining researchers from Princeton University, Columbia University, California Institute of Technology, Yale University, and University of Chicago with computational experts from Sandia National Laboratories and Brookhaven National Laboratory to tackle problems in physics, chemistry, and engineering. The program emphasizes scalable software developed for architectures exemplified by systems such as Summit (supercomputer), Fugaku, Frontier (supercomputer), and exascale initiatives managed by Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility. Projects often integrate tools from LBNL centers, leverage middleware like MPI and HDF5, and interface with data repositories maintained by entities such as National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center.

History and Funding

SciDAC originated in the early 2000s under leadership connected to United States Department of Energy Office of Science initiatives and drew on prior investments in high-performance computing exemplified by programs at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Major funding rounds involved agencies and organizations including the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research, the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR), and collaborations with program offices supporting projects in fusion at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and climate at NOAA. Over successive solicitations, grant recipients included consortia from University of Michigan, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and private partners such as Cray Inc. and IBM.

Program Structure and Partnerships

SciDAC employs a hub-and-spoke model coordinating cross-cutting teams at centers like National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, Computational Science Center at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and university-led institutes at University of California, Los Angeles and University of Texas at Austin. Partnerships extend to federal laboratories including Idaho National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and to international collaborators at CERN, RIKEN, and European Organization for Nuclear Research. Governance incorporated advisory input from panels convened with representatives from American Physical Society, Association for Computing Machinery, and industry advisory boards featuring firms such as Microsoft and Google.

Research Themes and Achievements

Research themes spanned computational fluid dynamics for projects with NASA, multiscale materials modeling linked to Oak Ridge National Laboratory programs, and climate modeling integrated with efforts at NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. Achievements include scalable algorithms adopted in simulations of inertial confinement fusion studied at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, development of uncertainty quantification methods applied in collaborations with Sandia National Laboratories, and contributions to quantum chemistry computations used by researchers at Harvard University and University of California, Berkeley. SciDAC teams published results in venues tied to Physical Review Letters, Journal of Computational Physics, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Software and Computational Tools

SciDAC-funded software ecosystems produced community codes and libraries such as frameworks interoperable with PETSc, Trilinos, AMReX, and data formats using NetCDF and HDF5. Toolchains were optimized for architectures from vendors like NVIDIA GPUs and AMD accelerators, and integrated performance tools akin to TAU (software) and HPCToolkit. Several codes were adopted by computational science communities at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and universities including Carnegie Mellon University and University of Washington for simulations in astrophysics, materials science, and fusion.

Education and Workforce Development

SciDAC supported workforce development through graduate fellowships and summer schools in partnership with institutions like University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and national labs including Brookhaven National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and collaborated with professional societies such as IEEE and SIAM to broaden computational science training. Programs produced curricular materials used in courses at Georgia Institute of Technology, mentorship networks involving researchers from Princeton University and Yale University, and internship pathways connecting students to facilities such as Argonne Leadership Computing Facility.

Impact and Legacy

SciDAC's legacy includes the widespread adoption of scalable software libraries at national laboratories like Oak Ridge National Laboratory and academic centers at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, influence on exascale computing roadmaps co-developed with US Department of Energy Office of Science leadership, and contributions to major science campaigns in fusion, climate, and materials that engaged collaborators at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, NOAA, and National Institutes of Health. Its investments helped seed long-term centers and partnerships involving IBM, Intel, and NVIDIA and informed policy discussions with stakeholders such as Congressional Research Service and advisory committees of the National Academies.

Category:United States Department of Energy programs