Researchers across Cornell depend on a growing range of computing resources to support data analysis, modeling, artificial intelligence, and other data-intensive work. As the research computing landscape becomes more complex, the Evolve IT Research Computing Design Team is exploring ways to make it easier for faculty and research staff to identify the services, expertise, and technologies that best fit their needs.

Led by Rich Knepper, director of the Cornell Center for Advanced Computing (CAC), and Scott Yoest, senior director of IT for the Cornell Tech campus as well as the College of Engineering and Cornell Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, the team brings together experts from across Cornell's research computing ecosystem. Representing Ithaca, Geneva, and Cornell Tech, team members are examining opportunities to improve how researchers discover and access the resources available to support their work.

Among those efforts, Jaroslaw "Jarek" Pillardy, director of the Bioinformatics Facility, is helping advance the development of researcher-facing resources and a new intake process that would guide researchers through available options.

"How can we best guide researchers through an increasingly complex landscape of computing options?" asked Pillardy. "Conversations will always be at the heart of how we match resources to needs, but we need an easily discovered and understood explanation of what resources are already available, and an intake form to inform our first discussions with the researchers."

The team envisions a clear catalog of research computing services paired with a structured intake form that would provide a starting point for consultations and help connect researchers with the right support more quickly.

Both Knepper and Yoest are quick to acknowledge the institutional knowledge and technical expertise of each contributor on the team they have assembled.

While team members bring deep technical insight and operational expertise, Knepper and Yoest help transform that expertise into institutional action. They gather insights from across the group, identify the most promising opportunities, and champion those ideas with university leadership. In doing so, they create an efficient bridge between subject matter experts and decision-makers, ensuring the team's collective knowledge can inform strategy without requiring every contributor to participate in every discussion.

From the first meeting, team members emphasized that successful research computing requires more than technology alone. Researchers also benefit from clear guidance, coordinated services, and knowledgeable support throughout the lifecycle of a project. While conversations about future plans are still underway, the team sees a research computing roadmap, service catalog, and consistent intake process as important steps toward creating a more seamless experience for Cornell's research community.

Read the full story about their early roadmap in the Evolve IT website.