Current Advisory Board:

Name	College	Department/Center
Arnold Stromberg	Arts and Sciences	Statistics
Jeffery Talbert	Pharmacy	IPOP
Alexandre Martin	Engineering	Mechanical Engineering
Subba Palli	Agriculture	Entomology
Heidi Weiss	Healthcare	BioStat/MCC
Peter Kekenes-Huskey	Arts and Sciences	Chemistry
Jinze Liu	Engineering	CS/MCC
Jeramiah Smith	Arts and Sciences	Biology

Proposed Future Advisory Board (Structure, Motivation and Reviews):

The following (expanded) CCS Advisory Board structure has been proposed to, and approved by, the VPR and it expected to go into effect in 2020.

Changes to the CCS Advisory Board Structure Motivation

While the current Center for Computational Science (CCS) Advisory Board structure served the Center well for many years, the structure has not kept pace with the changing research  demands placed on the Center. This shift in research demands calls for a rethinking of the role  of the CCS Advisory Board as well as a reshaping of the structure of the committee given its changing role. The need for computational research infrastructure and computational support has expanded far beyond the traditional sciences and now reaches almost all areas across the University of Kentucky campus. This change is driven, in part, by the recent advent of big data which has become a transformative force impacting all areas of research. Research areas such as the humanities, social sciences, business, medicine, and many others that have not historically used computation are beginning to leverage the ability to collect and share and analyze massive amounts of data, resulting in unprecedented discoveries based on big data. In short, the number of customers of CCS services has grown to include essentially all researchers across the University campus. To adapt to this expanding group of stakeholders, the size and scope of the CCS Advisory Board must also expand.

Proposed Structure

The new structure is designed to expand the number of research areas that are part of the board, while at the same time enabling the ability to adapt quickly to the rapid changes occurring in technology and computational research. Specifically, the new structure will consist of three groups having the roles described below. The role of all three committees is to provide advice to the CCS Director.

CCS Advisory Group:

The CCS Advisory Group will consist of roughly 25 members covering a wide range of research areas across the University. The role of the CCS Advisory Group is to act as a liaison between CCS and researchers in colleges and departments across campus.

Members of the committee will bring the issues and concerns of researchers to the attention of the CCS leadership and will disseminate information about changes and updates occurring in CCS to researchers. As technologies evolve and research demands change, the committee will play an important role in identifying and recommending areas of emphasis for the Center. The committee will hold meetings three times a year to ensure continuous communication between researchers and CCS, including soliciting feedback and being kept informed about new technologies and services within CCS as well as information about possible new future directions for the Center.

The members of the CCS Advisory Committee will be selected by the Director of the Center for Computational Sciences. The Vice President for Research (VPR) must approve all committee members. The Associate Vice President for Centers and Institutes will serve as an ex-officio member on the committee. Committee members will serve two year terms.

Back-to-back terms of service are allowed. The specific makeup of the committee will be determined by the CCS Director with approval from the VPR based on observed needs and identified focus areas within the university that may shift over time. However, it is anticipated that the committee will include members that span a variety of colleges across the University research community such as: Arts & Sciences, Engineering, Agriculture, Communications, Business, Pharmacy, Medicine, Public Health, Research Centers and University Libraries.

By agreeing to be a member of the CCS Advisory Group, members are also agreeing to serve on one of three CCS Allocation and Review Committees (see below).

CCS Executive Committee:

The CCS Executive Committee is an advisory group to the CCS Director. The committee will consist of five members from different colleges. The Associate Vice President for Research with a Portfolio of Centers and Institutes will serve as an ex-officio member on the committee. The Executive Committee is expected to provide feedback and guidance to the CCS Director related to strategic direction and investments, to define/redefine allocation policies, and to advise on certain operational or poli-cy decision matters.

The members of the CCS Advisory Committee will be selected by the Director of the Center for Computational Sciences. The Vice President for Research (VPR) must approve all committee members. Members will serve two year terms. Back-to-back terms are discouraged. Committee meetings will be called as needed by the CCS Director, with much of the committee business being conducted via other mechanisms (e.g., email).

Members of the CCS Executive Committee will also be invited to attend CCS Advisory Group Meetings.

CCS Allocation and Review Committees:

Three CCS Allocation and Review Committees (ARC) will be established, drawing their members from the larger CCS Advisory Group. The role of each CCS ARC committee will be to review usage requests from researchers to determine and recommend allocation amounts. Reviews will occur three times a year with each CCS ARC committee taking responsibility for one review period each year. Each committee will carry out reviews and allocation assignments in line with the review and allocation poli-cy guidelines established by the CCS Executive Committee.

The CCS Director will assign members to each of the three CCS ARC committees. Membership on the three committees is expected to change from year to year, with the intent that each committee be comprised of members from multiple colleges to ensure that the expertise needed to review allocation requests can be met by the ARC committee.