Welcome to the 2017 conference on Practice & Experience in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC17)! Many of you may have attended last year’s conference when it was called XSEDE16, and as general chair, I have the privilege of shepherding the conference into a new era and engaging expanded communities of practice.

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I am delighted that the PEARC conference series is being ushered in with support from many organizations, and we will build on the earlier conferences’ success and core audiences to serve this broader community. In addition to the eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) program, organizations supporting the new conference include the Advancing Research Computing on Campuses: Best Practices Workshop (ARCC), the Science Gateways Community Institute, the Campus Research Computing (CaRC) Consortium, the ACI-REF consortium, the Blue Waters project, ESnet, Open Science Grid, Compute Canada, the EGI Foundation, the Coalition for Academic Scientific Computation (CASC), and Internet2. 

 

Reflecting this community-wide interest and support, PEARC17 not only plans to continue the successful five-year XSEDE conference series but aims to grow and include additional campus, national, and international cyberinfrastructure and research computing partners. This is continuing with the co-location of the fourth Advancing Research Computing on Campuses (ARCC) best practices workshop. As a combined and newly independent conference, PEARC17 is working to integrate and meet the collective interests of our growing communities.

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The theme of this year’s conference is Sustainability, Success and Impact—particularly apropos as we strive to succeed in making the conference itself a self-sustaining event with continued impact. The theme also reflects key objectives for those managing, developing, and using advanced research computing throughout the nation and the world—sustainability of the infrastructure environment, measuring and ensuring success for those organizations providing and using advanced research computing, and impact of the technologies on the workforce and on science and scholarship.

 

For prior XSEDE conference attendees, the format of the Technical Program should seem familiar, and the Student Program and student participation will continue to be a highlight of the week with expanded visibility at the conference. We look forward to contributions from across the communities, which will ensure the continued high quality of the program.

 

Finally, I am personally excited about the conference venue in New Orleans, an amazing city to visit and explore. New Orleans boasts the historic French Quarter and Jackson Square; the live music of Preservation Hall and the clubs on Frenchman Street; the National WWII Museum and other museums; the antebellum homes of the Garden District; and the restaurants throughout the city and, of course, the beignets at Café du Monde. Consider extending your trip by a day or two to take advantage of a few of these opportunities.

 

I hope to see you in New Orleans!

 

 

David L Hart

National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

PEARC17 General Chair