A Plan to Undergird the Continued Funding of both the MHPCC and the Entire HPCMP
Dan M. Davis
CDR, USNR-Ret
Executive Summary
The very existence of MHPCC is threatened and every effort must be made to find compelling rationales for retaining its sustaining share of dwindling funding. Any program that bolsters both the MHPCC and the HPCMP will be doubly beneficial. It will further be especially attractive if that initiative highlights that the SAIC team is the one providing a unique and essential contribution. The ISI/USC team thinks one such effort would be the production of a spectacular increase in technical publications by MHPCC and the other centers of the HPCMP. Such a dramatic increase in visibility would communicate the utility of HPC to funder, warfighter and research communities. A similar order of magnitude increase has been accomplished by the ISI/USC team in the past and can be implemented in this setting with: an effective survey of appropriate venues, a well articulated mandate to publish, a carefully designed web site, and an automated tracking system for opportunities and output. A prototype system has already been designed for MHPCC and could easily and with virtually no additional cost be extended to the entire HPCMP community. Such an result is sure to be seen as valuable and would be a good negotiating tactic for various situations, such as the option contract years, any new contract, and as justification for change orders providing additional funding.
Introduction and Justification
As the continued viability of the Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC) and the High Performance Computing Management Program (HPCMP) are inextricably intertwined, an effort to bolster the visibility of this crucial technology is highly recommended and is laid out here. Experience has shown that the strength of a proposal is optimized when the proposer establishes a record of competence and reliability, but also is able to identify unique areas of expertise or emphasis. This can make their proposal attractively distinguishable from the myriad other proposers who, showing their hubris, are relying on their similarly creditable credentials, but lacking the winning team’s special approach and skills. Technical review boards are often populated with academics who respond well to proposals highlighting academic interests, goals, and orientations, in addition to promising proficiency and reliable delivery. Most often, these distinguishing facets of the proposal entail little or no additional cost. A real and cogent plan to improve HPCMP visibility with groups that matter is unquestionably valuable.
The author distinctly remembers visiting with the first HPCMO personnel shortly after that organization was established for the DoD. At that meeting, some time was spent discussing the need to convince the active duty personnel and the academic community of the benefits to be gained from High Performance Computing (HPC). Efforts to communicate, showing varying degrees of efficacy, have been observed in the intervening two decades. Nevertheless, it would not be hyperbolic to suggest that the typical Member of Congress, the vast majority of warfighters and virtually all academic researchers have never heard of, nor do they have any inkling of the value provided to the DoD by, the HPCMP. This dearth of knowledge and lack of understanding cannot but bode ill for any chance of increased funding and also these failures are imminent threats to the very existence of the program. Constraints on government contact with Congress and a paucity of warfighter experience in the senior staff have exacerbated HPCMP’s communications problems. While being mindful of the legal issues and organizational sensitivities that are operative here, there are ways to improve the HPC image in all germane groups.
What few technical publications that are emanating from the Centers seem almost entirely focused on technical journals, scientific conferences and HPCMP internal meetings. Both the types of publications typically read by the Members of Congress and the types of professional journals widely read by warfighters may be outside of the ken of HPCMP personnel. Center researchers and users are similarly not inclined to seek out these vehicles to communicate to the warfighters. At an Army Science Conference, which we attended as HPCMP users, it was observed that the other users and Center researchers were very much inclined not to be attentive to the needs and interests of the warfighters, but were singularly and uniformly interested in researcher colleagues and focused on academic studies. That indentified two problems: the endemic tendency for researchers to be both introverted and focused on their own line of research and the need to select conference attendees that includeds an effective mix of high-achieving academics and more extroverted technical communicators with a global view of warfighters’ needs and attitudes. During the proposal preparation, now a year and a half ago, a PhD researcher from MHPCC reported that he had not published a single paper in any venue during his ten years at MHPCC.
Experience and Approaches
The the Computational Sciences Division team at ISI/USC has significant experience in encouraging, facilitating and managing technical publication production from otherwise recalcitrant researchers. A quick review of the members of the staff at this Division of ISI will reveal that publications increased by an order of magnitude in most cases from similar periods at comparable prior positions. In some cases the increase was infinite, as several of the researchers had NEVER published before. This phenomenon did not escape the notice of the staff at the US Joint Forces Command’s J9 (Joint Experimentation Division) nor that of Lockheed Martin or Alion. LockMart was tasked with producing a dozen papers for one of their contracts and contacted ISI to remedy a total lack of publications as their deadline approached. Within a few months, the ISI team had met with researchers in Suffolk, identified many opportunities for publication, extracted appropriate research topics and produced papers for peer-reviewed conferences and journals. The accepted papers exceeded the goal by 25% (15 papers vice 12 required), while other researchers only contributed two additional papers that were not parented by the ISI team.
This spectacular feat was accomplished by the application of a few straightforward techniques:
Positive Analysis of Work Already Done – It was found that many researchers never consider the impact or importance of what they are doing. A single visit with a person familiar with the field in general and who possesses a creative and visionary mind-set will quickly identify numerous topics worthy of publication.
Identification of Potential Publication Issues – Such a visit by an endowed mentor will also frequently find research issues of critical import that are begging to be done and can often be accomplished in short order, e.g. analyzing an available data set with a tool, previously developed to analyze a different data set. Then the authors could publish in venues for the new data set, appropriately citing any previous publications using other data.
Facilitation of the First Steps – Communicating to the potential publication author concerning the benefits and ease of publishing by providing information, insights, and templates has been effective at encouraging that difficult first step: putting thoughts down on a page. A web page was developed and put on line to assist that process. An example shows the inclusion of dates, conferences, locations, themes, caveats/acknowledgements to be included, links to templates, deadlines, and the like. If the researcher really was having a hard time, the mentor, taking oral notes, would render those into a draft abstract and this was often useful in getting the writing “off the dime.”
Regular Assessments of Progress – Again, using the web site, it was easy to monitor who had submitted abstracts, first drafts, accepted drafts, slide presentations, clearance forms, etc. The inclusion of acknowledgements, especially those that were professionally or politically critical was carefully monitored and appropriate language was inserted into drafts if any were not found during the proofing period.
Attention to Attendance Preparation – A very modest amount of effort insured that travel arrangements were made, conference registration was accomplished during the discount period, and that professional association discounts were exercised. Protection of travel budgets was always a priority. A tradition of a “user friendly” dry-run of presentations was very effective at clearing up communication goals, data clarity, and timing issues.
Rigorous Recognition and Inclusion in Web Bios/C.V.s – Often, researchers were, again, reticent about highlighting their own accomplishments, so carefully updating on-line bios, C.V.s, and promulgating congratulatory eMail upon receipt of acceptance communications was de rigueur. It cannot be exaggerated that, despite protestations of “I don’t like to write.”, “I didn’t do anything worth reporting.”, and “I hate giving talks.”, it seemed that daily someone would remark, “Wow! Look at my publications list; I never did anything like that before.” and “I published more this year that I have during the rest of my life.”
The experience with these techniques has been uniform in that they were able to dramatically increase the number of publications in organizations as diverse as universities, defense contractors, museums, pre-college education, and military personnel. They similarly have been successful with personnel whose degrees have run the gamut from high school to bachelors to masters to terminal/doctoral degrees. The critical factor is the ability to identify and analyze the needs of the potential authors, whatever their level of education, and help them overcome whatever obstacles are keeping them from publishing.
Implementation and Impact On MHPCC and HPCMP
As noted above, there is already a suggestion to implement such a system of publication promotion at the MHPCC. There is a concomitant need at the HPCMP level and it is to that specific implementation that this paper speaks. Positing the success of the previous implementation of the web site so central to the success of the effort, expanding it to serve the needs of the entire HPCMP should be a straightforward evolution. In fact, should no other part of the process be offered to the Program as a whole, it would be collegial to open up the web page to Sister Centers. A trivial modification of the caveats and acknowledgements provided to the prospective authors should suffice, so long as they were using the site for information and links only.
However, a larger vision is being proffered here, that of this group’s taking on the mantle of The Publications Organization for the entire HPCMP, thereby providing sustaining assistance to the Program and establishing this group as a cornerstone of the Program’s future infrastructure, with all of the contractual and proposal advantages that would give SAIC in future negotiations at every level. Some readily apparent benefits to the Program are vital and manifold:
· Increase visibility to cognizant groups
o Congress
o JCS/OSD
o Warfighters
o Research colleagues
· Establish fresh Center staffs emphases on:
o Professionalism
o Growth
o Gaining recognition
· Take/retain leadership role within HPC
· Inculcate a timely research completion motivation
· Improve scientific credentials/reputation within community
· Accentuate HPCMP’s professionalism to enhance recruiting
· Attract research opportunities via higher visibility
There are a number of phases to the implementation process for the entire Program. The vast majority of these could be beneficially implemented alone and still be of significant utility. They include: 1) a series of meetings with HPCMP leadership to develop a consensus as to goals and target audiences, 2) a survey of appropriate technical publication venues, 3) a survey of DoD professional venues that might accept articles of technical interest, 4) an on-line survey of current publication activities within the HMPCP, 5) on-site meetings at each center to assess the potentials for publication, 6) expansion of web site capabilities and utility, 7) assisting publication production and 8) collection, analysis and promulgation of publication achievements.
Meetings with HPCMP leadership - It would almost certainly be propitious to seek buy-in from Program management by meeting with them early on in the process to develop a consensus as to goals and target audiences. Taking the lead in suggesting a vision would enable them to see the extent of the team’s experience and analysis. They could then contribute whatever insights or directives they feel appropriate. This step is critical for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to benefit from the amalgamation of the wisdom of the Program’s leadership. It would certainly warrant a trip to Vicksburg and to Washington D.C., or two, to surface and resolve issues. One issue that should be raised is the issuance of better guidance to outside researchers as to acknowledgement of the providing Center and the HPCMP in every publication which used those services to do their research.
Appropriate technical publication venues – While we are very familiar with some of the best venues for HPCMP work, e.g. Super Computing (SCXX), HPCMP UGC, I/ITSEC., WinterSim, SIW, … , there are other areas that would come to light with a brief survey of appropriate site, including the relevant community’s evaluation of the reputation of that venue. One way to get at this would be to direct all HPCMP researchers to an on-line survey asking them where they have published or would like to publish. Some significant detective work would also be illuminating.
DoD professional venues – Within the experience of the entire team here at ISI, this is a much underappreciated and ostensibly unused vehicle for communicating to the warfighter. Professional journals like US Naval Proceedings, Marine Corp Gazette, Air and Space Power Journal, and Army Magazine are all widely read by professional service members. It would be a service the team could provide to the HPCMP: having a senior member of each of the services (O-5 or above) take technical advances and make the article accessible for the practicing warfighters. The team is comprised of a collection of retired or reserve officers with such capability, including virtually every path to a commission. This would go a long way to highlighting the benefits of HPC to the working service member. Reaching an even more diverse warfighter audience are the Military Times newspapers: Army, Navy and Air Force Times. Here, newspaper formatted articles might be of great interest to an editor looking for camera-ready copy to fill his pages.
On-line survey of current publication activities – It is conceivable, but seemingly unlikely, that there are effective and operational publication systems already in effect. The team’s experience is virtually all directives at a local level are negative, e.g. do not publish without prior permission, do not sign up for a conference unless ordered to do so, do not talk to news media without a PIO with you, … All are valid concerns but convey the “just don’t say anything” attitude to the researchers. In any case, finding out what each of the Centers is doing and what DC and Vicksburg are putting out is critical before moving forward. This survey would also produce data for a baseline: X publications per A, B and C levels of researchers per decade.