CC* Strategy-Campus: Accelerating Research Computing at Texas A&M San Antonio (ARCATS)

Accelerating Research Computing at Texas A&M University-San Antonio (ARCATS) elevates research computing capacity by enhancing the capacity for campus cyberinfrastructure-enabled research. The university has recognized the growing importance of data-intensive computational science across a wide range of academic fields, including water resources management, genomics, biology, chemistry, health, humanities, and cybersecurity.

Supporting the university’s growing research programs, ARCATS develops a comprehensive plan to advance the university’s cyberinfrastructure and facilitate collaborations with regional cyberinfrastructure partners. Through this process, ARCATS is identifying specific research needs in high performance computing, plans for research computing resources, and mechanisms that support burgeoning research communities of practice.

The project supports undergraduate and graduate education through experiential learning opportunities, fostering computation-related science programs, and developing student-focused industry partnerships. ARCATS positions the university in the national cyberinfrastructure ecosystem by promoting research and instruction-focused collaborations with institutions in Texas and national research communities.

As such, it serves as a model for smaller institutions, fostering regional and national scientific collaborations.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.