A CRNCH Special Interest Group (SIG), sometimes cheekily referred to as a Computing Hierarchies Expert Workgroup (CHEW), is a focused group of researchers surrounding a common topic. CRNCH was created in order to push forward Georgia Tech’s involvement and expertise in the post-Moore computing landscape, and we envision these focused groups as ways to coordinate our efforts across many diverse areas of potential research engagement.
The benefits of a CRNCH SIG are simple – we want to empower researchers to tackle larger research problems and to go after more substantial, collaborative funding efforts by providing basic infrastructure for planning and coordination. SIGs are not meant to supplant a researcher or lab’s agenda, but instead they are meant to be supportive environments where we can think about how to create the next big innovation in post-Moore computing.
What are the benefits of CRNCH SIGs?
SIGs are meant to enable new collaborations and empower researchers to discuss how to tackle larger research problems. In addition to this high-level goal, CRNCH will also provide the following:
- Help with meeting scheduling and note taking; coordination of a common mail group and MS Teams channels for each SIG to enable easier discussion.
- A small amount of discretionary funding for meetings to provide refreshments
- Engagement with our Rogues Gallery testbed efforts to help focus limited hardware funds on common, big ticket items that can benefit multiple researchers.
- SIG chairs will also act as an advisory council to the CRNCH leadership and will help to drive future CRNCH efforts and center-scale efforts.
What are the responsibilities of SIG members?
We ask that in exchange for help with support and coordination that you plan to meet with the fellow members of your SIG at least once per semester and ideally twice a semester to discuss your current research interests and any “blue sky ideas” you think might be useful to seed discussion and/or collaborative research. Notes that you take from this meeting should be shared with the SIG, and CRNCH will help to maintain an internal shared SIG space for you to review these ideas and collaborate further.
We also suggest that you share and review any larger grant or program opportunities that might be suitable for the SIG’s focus either via email or other channels like MS Teams.
Finally, as a planning exercise, we suggest that you do a simple SWOT analysis at one of your meetings to help determine what areas each SIG has strength in at Georgia Tech and what areas might require external collaboration or prioritization for future hiring.
What SIGs currently exist or could be created?
As part of the CRNCH Rogues Gallery CCRI grant and related efforts we have initiated the creation of three SIGs as of Fall 2020:
- Benchmarking
- Neuromorphic and Novel Systems for ML
- Novel Networking.
We envision that future SIGs could come from any of the following areas:
- Quantum
- Physical Computing
- Reconfigurable Computing
- Programming Languages and Compilers
- Superconducting, Thermodynamic, and Cryogenic Computing
If you are interested in joining one of the existing CRNCH SIGs or initiating a new one, please send an email to captain@crnch.gatech.edu.
