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Governance of ACCRE

The Vanderbilt Advanced Computing Center for Research and Education (ACCRE) is designed, implemented, and operated by and for the investigators who are users of its services. The governing and decision making structure of the center is shown in the figure below.


Steering Committee

The Steering Committee provides vision and direction for ACCRE, makes policy decisions such as the allocation of resources, resolves any problems or disputes, and is responsible for operational oversight. This committee is responsive to requests and concerns raised by the Investigators, as well as serving as a conduit for information flow among the Internal Advisory Committee, the Investigators, and the External Advisory Committee.

Steering Committee Members and School Affiliation
David Piston, Medical School
Ronald Schrimpf, Engineering
Paul Sheldon (Chair), Arts and Science

Internal Advisory Committee

The Internal Advisory Committee provides internal, independent advice and review. This committee is comprised of University Central and Medical Center research administrative personnel. The Internal Advisory Committee meets when they find it necessary. At these meetings the Steering Committee reports on all significant issues related to the Center; the administrative committee members provide feedback, advice, and guidance as needed. This committee is co-chaired by Jeffrey Balser (Medical Center) and Dennis Hall (University Central).

Investigators and User Input

The ACCRE Steering Committee and staff actively solicit advice and review from all researchers using ACCRE resources. To solicit input from Investigators, a short term Faculty Study Group was set up in 2006. They reviewed ACCRE operations and made recommendations that have been implemented, the most important being a new pricing model for the Investigators using the ACCRE cluster. Due to the success of this study group, an on-going Faculty Advisory Board was set up in 2007 comprised of three investigators each from each of three areas: Arts & Sciences, Engineering, and the Medical School.

Faculty Advisory Group
Faculty Advisory Group Members and School Affiliation
Adam Anderson, Engineering
Andrew Link, Medical School
Charles Maguire, Arts & Science
Jens Meiler, Arts & Science
Marcus Mendenhall, Engineering
Tom Palmeri, Arts & Science
Marylyn Ritchie, Medical School
Phoebe Stewart, Medical School
Greg Walker, Engineering
Robert Weller (Chair), Engineering
External Advisory and Review Committee

The External Advisory Committee consists of three to four external experts who provide independent advice and review. These advisors are selected from the community of researchers who are experts in the implementation and/or use of High Performance Computing. A balance is struck among the many interests and sub-areas of expertise involved in the center.

These advisors are invited individually to visit the Center every other year either in conjunction with a presentation to the user community or to participate in a formal project review, the results of which are presented to the Steering Committee and the Internal Advisory Committee.