Computational Cove, the Inaugural SoCal Research Computing & Data Symposium

0.1 SoCal RCA is hosting the inaugural Computational Cove symposium at Claremont McKenna College on October 3, 2025.

Date: Friday, October 3, 2025
Time: 9:00 AM - 3:30 PM
Location: McKenna Auditorium Claremont McKenna College 390 E 9th St Claremont, CA 91711

Join us for the launch of Computational Cove, a premier gathering designed to bring together SoCal Research Computing Alliance partners, researchers, students, and industry professionals in the fields of research computing, data science, computational sciences, and innovation.

1 Event Parking Map and Information

Reserved Parking Lot 1 (15 spaces): McAlister Center Parking Lot, 919 N Columbia Ave, Claremont, CA 91711
Reserved Parking Lot 2 (30 spaces): Academic Computing Building, 130 E. 9th St., Claremont, CA, 91711
Main Sessions (keynote speeches, research showcases, and poster session): McKenna Auditorium, 390 E 9th St, Claremont, CA 91711
Lunch: The Ath (Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum), 385 E 8th St, Claremont, CA 91711

2 Highlights

We have an exciting lineup planned for this year’s symposium, offering opportunities for the SoCal advanced research computing community to explore, connect, and learn.

The symposium will feature a diverse program including:

• Keynote speeches: Hear from leading voices in computational research as they share insights on the current academic research computing landscape.
• Faculty research showcases: Faculty from across disciplines and institutions will present innovative research projects that demonstrate the power of advanced computing to drive discovery and innovation.
• Student research poster presentations: Students will have the chance to showcase their work in computational science, machine learning, and more.
• Raffle prizes: All attendees will receive a raffle ticket for a chance to win an Anker portable charger. Raffle winners will be announced at the end of the program after the student poster winners. Anyone who volunteers to be a “People’s Choice Award” judge for the poster session will receive an additional raffle ticket
• Networking sessions for RCA and IT Professionals: Engage with peers, share best practices, and explore potential collaborations in sessions designed specifically for research computing administrators, systems professionals, and institutional IT partners. These sessions are by invitation only.

Student posters will be reviewed by a faculty judging committee, and top presenters will receive exciting prizes, including:

• iPads
• A Mac mini
• Portable power packs

3 Who Should Attend

This event is ideal for anyone involved or interested in computationally driven research and infrastructure, including:

• Researchers and Academics
• Data Scientists and Analysts
• Research Computing and IT Professionals
• Students in Computational Science, Data Science, and Computing

4 Schedule

5 Speakers and speech abstracts

5.1 Ewa Deelman

Ewa Deelman, Ph.D is a Research Professor at the University of Southern California (USC) Computer Science Department and a Research Director at the USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI). At ISI, she is leading the Science Automation Technologies Center. She is an AAAS, IEEE, and USC/ISI Fellow.

From Scripts to Workflows: Orchestrating Science with Pegasus

Scientific discovery today depends on computational experiments that generate and analyze massive amounts of data. Managing these computations reliably and efficiently—across laptops, campus clusters, national supercomputers, and the cloud—requires more than ad-hoc scripts. Pegasus is an open-source scientific workflow management system that lets researchers describe complex data-processing pipelines at a high level and then automatically maps, schedules, and executes them on diverse computing infrastructures.

This talk introduces the concept of scientific workflows, shows how Pegasus represents and orchestrates them, and illustrate its use in fields ranging from earthquake science to astronomy. The presentation will describe key ideas such as portability, scalability, provenance tracking, and fault tolerance, and share examples of how students and faculty can leverage Pegasus to accelerate their own computational projects.

5.2 Ran Libeskind-Hadas

Ran “RON” Libeskind-Hadas received his bachelors degree in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University and his MS and PhD in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He spent the first 28 years of his career at Harvey Mudd College, where he has the R. Michael Shanahan Professor of Computer Science and former chair of that department. Since 2021, he has been the Founding Chair of the Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences at Claremont McKenna College. His research is in the area of computational biology. He has served on the Advisory Committee for the National Science Foundation’s Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate and currently serves on the Executive Board of the Computing Research Association.

Adventures in Starting a New Computation-Rich Natural Sciences Department

The Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences is at Claremont McKenna College offers a new undergraduate science degree that integrates along several important dimensions, including integration of computational methods into the undergraduate science curriculum. In this talk, Ran will describe the program and the challenges and opportunities in developing a natural sciences program that integrates computing as an important vehicle for learning and doing science.

5.3 Jack Wells

Jack Wells is Director, Higher Education and Research Computing at NVIDIA. Jack joined NVIDIA in 2021 following 23 years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he was Director of Science for the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility. Jack has a PhD in Physics from Vanderbilt University.

Supporting Scientific Computing Infrastructure

NVIDIA, as a full-stack computing platform company, is at the forefront of accelerating scientific discovery by providing comprehensive solutions that span hardware, software, and cloud services. The increasing diversity and scale of scientific applications, and the introduction of AI into scientific applications and workflows, introduce significant complexity to scientific computing infrastructure. NVIDIA addresses these challenges through the development of microservices, reference architectures & workflows, and AI development frameworks. By abstracting away complexity, NVIDIA enables scientists to focus on research rather than computing infrastructure management. Streamlined deployment and optimized performance shorten the time from hypothesis to discovery. NVIDIA’s ongoing scientific software development exemplifies its commitment to accelerating scientific discovery. These solutions empower researchers to harness the full potential of AI and high-performance computing, driving faster and more impactful scientific breakthroughs.

6 Special Thanks

7 Sponsors

Lenovo

NVIDIA

U.S. National Science Foundation