Advisory Committee on Research Computing (ACORC)

The UW–‍Madison Advisory Committee on Research Computing (ACORC), in collaboration with the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education (VCRGE), provides vision, leadership and advocacy in setting the direction for research computing for the university. Through researcher-focused representation, the group provides guidance, directs investment, formulates technical strategies, and advocates for research-related computational capabilities in the form of services, facilities and training for the university. Details in the charter below.

At a glance

Contacts

Todd Shechter
Co-chair

Lonnie Berger
Co-chair

Next meeting

October 15, 2025

1:00 – 2:30 pm

in person location TBD (Teams remote option)

Future Meetings

ACORC members

Name Title Unit
Karthik Anantharaman Assistant Professor CALS, Bacteriology
Andrew Arnold IT Director Social Science Computing Cooperative
Suman Banerjee Professor Computer Sciences Department, College of Letters and Science
Steve Barnett Systems and Operations Manager IceCube Research Center
Lonnie Berger Professor Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research
Brian Bockelman Associate Scientist Morgridge Institute for Research
Peter Boguszewski Research IT Director Wisconsin Center for Education Research, School of Education
Dorota Brezezinska Vice Chancellor for Reseach Office of the Vice Chancellor or Research
Jan Cheetham Director, Research Cyberinfrastructure Division of Information Technology
Pat Christian Network Services Director Division of informationTechnology
Mike Collins Research Computing Director School of Medicine and Public Health
Didier Contis CIO and Vice Provost for Information Technology Division of Information Technology
Cameron Cook Data and Digital Scholarship Manager General Library System
Kyle Cranmer Director American Family Insurance Data Science Institute
Cynthia Czajkowski Interim Vice Chancellor Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education
Sridhara Dasu Professor Physics, College of Letters and Science
Steve Devoti Enterprise Architect Division of Information Technology
Tom Flitter IT Director College of Engineering
Andy Goldstein Libraries Chief Information Officer (interim) General Library System
Mike Graham Professor College of Engineering
Tom Hartman IT director (interim) College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
TW Huang Assistant Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering
Tomomi Imamura Enterprise Cybersecurity Architect Division of Information Technology
Christina Koch Research Computing Facilitator Center for High Throughput Computing
Jeff Korab Sr IT Director School of Medicine and Public Health
Wan-chin Kuo Assistant Professor School of Nursing
Miron Livny Director Center for High Throughput Computing
Dane Morgan Professor College of Engineering
Scott Nolin Research CI Manager Space Science and Engineering Center
Dirk Norman Information Services Director Wisconsin Energy Institute
Lauren Papp Associate Dean and Professor School of Human Ecology
Sebastien Plante Professor Wisconsin School of Business
James Pustejovsky Professor Educational Psychology, School of Education
Warren Rose Associate Professor School of Pharmacy
Sushmita Roy Associate Professor Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, School of Medicine and Public Health
Todd Shechter Chief Technology Officer Division of Information Technology
Tadd Smejkal Director, Systems Engineering and Operations Division of Information Technology
Sarah Stevens Data Scientist Facilitator UW–‍Madison Data Science Institute
Amy Wendt Professor Emeritus Electrical and Computer Engineering
Elizabeth Wright Professor Biochemistry, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Mostafa Zamanian Assistant Professor School of Veterinary Medicine

Meeting docs

Despite our best efforts to ensure accessibility of the ACORC webpage and resources, there may be some limitations with some of the content that is linked on the ACORC website. Below is a description of known limitations, and potential solutions.  Please email becky.morgan@wisc.edu if you encounter an issue.

Known limitations for ACORC’s content:

Meeting minutes, agenda, links, and PDFs: Some of the documents listed within the ACORC website are provided through PDFs and external links. The PDFs and external links have images that may not have text alternatives. The PDFs may not be accessible to all screen readers. The PDFs may not have high color contrasting in some areas. Because we are unable to alter some of the PDFs or content from external links, fully accessible content cannot be guaranteed. However, we are committed to working with any requester that need accommodations.

2025-26 academic year meeting agendas

For access to meeting documents from prior years, please contact becky.morgan@wisc.edu.

Upcoming meetings

2025

  • Wednesday, October 15, 2025 from 2:00 – 3:30 pm
  • Monday, December 8, 2025 from 1:00 – 2:30 pm
  • Friday, February 6, 2026 from 1:00- 2:30 pm
  • Thursday, April 9, 2026 from 9:00 – 10:30 am

Charter

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ACORC charter

UW–‍Madison, Advisory Committee on Research Computing (ACORC)

Fall, 2022

Committee mission

Research computing is the collection of personnel, software, computing capacity and facilities that support the UW–‍Madison research enterprise.

The UW–‍Madison Advisory Committee on Research Computing (ACORC) in collaboration with the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education (VCRGE), provides vision, leadership, and advocacy in setting the direction for research computing for the university. Through researcher-focused representation, the group provides guidance, directs investment, formulates technical strategies and advocates for research-related computational capabilities in the form of services, facilities, and training for the university.

The ACORC serves in an advisory role to the VCRGE and the Vice Provost for Information Technology/Chief Information Officer (CIO) on research computing matters. The scope of research computing covers in addition to high-throughput/performance computing capacity, the technologies, hardware, software, services, and human resources required to support research endeavors that are not normally addressed by other aspects of university administration.

Specific committee goals

  • Identify and communicate the diverse researcher needs for computing from all parts of campus, with emphasis on up and coming research trends leading to unmet computing solutions.
  • Develop metrics describing the impact of research computing on the competitiveness of the UW–‍Madison research enterprise.
  • Use these metrics to advocate for new investments and evolving services, evaluate return on investments, review priorities, service offerings, and metrics of centrally funded campus research computing resources.
  • Look for opportunities to streamline processes and procedures, providing a better researcher experience interacting with computing resources across the campus.
  • Facilitate effective dialogues and partnerships among different groups of researchers, computing providers, research cyberinfrastructure groups, librarians, campus leaders, national entities, vendors, and others.