US NSF s Scientific Software Innovation Institutes

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Ashlyn Webb
8 years ago
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1 US NSF s Scientific Software Innovation Institutes S 2 I 2 awards invest in long-term projects which will realize sustained software infrastructure that is integral to doing transformative science. (Can fund US university personnel who collaborate in larger projects.) This mechanism may be appropriate for funding software development for the HL-LHC. There are two stages: Conceptualization Awards planning awards aimed at organizing an interdisciplinary community and understanding their software requirements and challenges (one year); Implementation Awards are made to implement community activities that support software infrastructure, for example, such as those developed by the conceptualization awards. (five years). Mike Sokoloff (LHCb), Pete Elmer (CMS), and Mark Neubauer (ATLAS) submitted a Conceptualization Proposal on August 10, We anticipate a series of workshops in the first half of 2016 culminating in a Community White Paper at the end of the summer to identify software and computing R&D issues for the HL-LHC era. In addition, we will prepare an NSF-specific Strategic Plan for an institute. US NSF Support for HEP Software Development 1 / 7

This mechanism may be appropriate for funding software development for the HL-LHC.

2 Where does this fit in? The HL-LHC will provide ATLAS and CMS with 100 times the luminosity of Run 1. This promises transformative science. Program officers at the US funding agencies (the DOE and the NSF) recognize that developing coherent computing models and software for the HL-LHC era is critical for doing the science. The S 2 I 2 mechanism is a possible approach to funding part of the US contribution. It can support as much as $4M a year for 5 years. [NB: this would be new money from the Division of Advanced Cyber-infrastructure at the NSF, not from Experimental Particle Physics.] The US university community is only part of the US LHC community, and a small fraction of the LHC community. We must identify areas where an S 2 I 2 project can make well-defined (and recognized) contributions. S 2 I 2 funding supports software development for communities, not for individual experiments, but ATLAS, CMS, LHCb, ALICE are key stakeholders, as are CERN, the US DOE-funded labs, and the HEP Software Foundation. The conceptualization process will also provide non-u.s. national and regional groups an opportunity to develop plans and proposal strategies as part of a coherent community plan. US NSF Support for HEP Software Development 2 / 7

The S 2 I 2 mechanism is a possible approach to funding part of the US contribution. It can support as much as $4M a year for 5 years.

3 Community White Paper complete by August, 2016 Describe a global vision for software and computing for the HL-LHC era; include discussions of elements common to the LHC community as a whole and those specific to individual experiments. Also discuss the relationship of the common elements to the broader HEP and scientific computing communities. a broad overview of the grand challenge science of the HL-LHC; how new approaches to computing and software can enable and radically extend the physics reach of the detectors; what computing and software research will be required so that computing and software Technical Design Reports can be prepared several years before Run 4 of the LHC begins; this will include studies of hardware and software architectures and life-cycle processes and costs; identify specific software elements and frameworks that will be required for the HL-LHC era which can be built and tested during Run 3; organizational issues for the common software and for coordinating research of common interest, even when the final products will be specific to individual experiments; tools for developing and documenting sustainable software; identifying and mitigating potential risks. US NSF Support for HEP Software Development 3 / 7

a broad overview of the grand challenge science of the HL-LHC; how new approaches to computing and software can enable and radically extend the physics reach of the detectors; what computing and

4 Partners Key organizations that will participate include: ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, LHCb; CERN Software Group; HEP Software Foundation; Software Sustainability Institute; DASPOS (Data and Software Preservation for Open Science); Open Science Grid; Fermilab Scientific Computing Division; DOE HEP Forum for Computing Excellence; Worldwide LHC Computing Grid. Individual cmmitments to participate, and commitments to help organize participation by their communities from: HEP Theory; Computer Science; HEP Experiments. US NSF Support for HEP Software Development 4 / 7

Division; DOE HEP Forum for Computing Excellence; Worldwide LHC Computing Grid.

5 Strategic Plan complete by December, 2016 NSF-centric plan identifying areas where the U.S. university community can provide leadership and discussing those issues required for an S 2 I 2. In addition to issues identified in the CWP, this must address the following questions: where does the U.S. university community already have expertise and important leadership roles; which software elements and frameworks would provide the best educational and training opportunities for students and postdoctoral fellows; what types of programs (short courses, short-term fellowships, long-term fellowships, etc.) might enhance the educational reach of an S 2 I 2 ; possible organizational, personnel and management structures and operational processes; how the investment in an S 2 I 2 can be judged and how the investment can be sustained to assure the scientific goals of the HL-LHC. While the plan will be specific to the US-NSF S 2 I 2 pgrogram, it can also serve as a template for proposals to other funding agencies. US NSF Support for HEP Software Development 5 / 7

university community already have expertise and important leadership roles; which software elements and frameworks would provide the best educational and training opportunities for students and

6 Working Groups & Workshops In consultation with the broad community, we will organize working groups responsible for planning workshop sessions and writing chapters/sections for the white paper and strategic plan. We plan to have 5 workshops, starting in January, Very tentatively, they will organized along the following lines: The first workshop will focus on big picture questions. Each working group will be asked to flesh out a written charge to itself. Topical workshop 1 will focus on Detector Simulation, Triggering, Event Reconstruction and Visualization. Topical workshop 2 will focus on Data Access and Management, Workflow and Resource Managment. Topical workshop 3 will focus on Physics Generators, Data Analysis and Interpretation, Data and Software Preservation. At the final workshop, all working groups will prepare and present draft chapters/sections for the white paper. These will be discussed and iterated. At the end of the workshop, a complete and coherent white paper should be ready for review and final editing. US NSF Support for HEP Software Development 6 / 7

Each working group will be asked to flesh out a written charge to itself. Topical workshop 1 will focus on Detector Simulation, Triggering, Event Reconstruction and Visualization.

7 Your Role Broad participation is strongly, strongly encouraged. This cannot be a U.S.-centric enterprise. The Community White Paper should serve as an outline for software development projects critical to the success of the LHC scientific program. Although the Strategic Plan will be NSF-centric, it can serve as a model for other national/regional groups to approach their funding agencies. Participate directly; Encourage your HEP colleagues to participate; Encourage your computer science colleagues to participate; Encourage your software engineering colleagues to participate. Our funding agencies spend about 150M CHF/$/Euros per year on LHC software and computing. Encourage your project management colleagues to participate. US NSF Support for HEP Software Development 7 / 7

Although the Strategic Plan will be NSF-centric, it can serve as a model for other national/regional groups to approach their funding agencies.

Foundation for HEP Software

Foundation for HEP Software (Richard Mount, 19 May 2014) Preamble: Software is central to all aspects of modern High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments and therefore to their scientific success. Offline