Aug 17 2017
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Eric Boyd

Eric Boyd, Ph.D.

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Eric Boyd, Ph.D., is the director of networks with Information and Technology Services (ITS) at the University of Michigan. He leads the network operations, network engineering, and network software teams in the design, implementation, and operation of the campus network. He is responsible for the campus WiFi network, which includes over 15,00 access points campus-wide. In addition, Dr. Boyd works with research faculty in service to the research mission of the university and is co-lead of the open source perfSONAR project. He is the principal investigator for NetBASILISK, an NSF-funded grant that will explore network security and network performance that are critical to the research, teaching, and learning missions of the higher education community.

From 2002 to 2016, Dr. Boyd worked at Internet2 in a variety of positions, including senior director for Strategic Projects. While at Internet2, Dr. Boyd co-founded the widely deployed open source monitoring framework known as perfSONAR. During his nearly 15 years at Internet2, perfSONAR grew to become the global standard for network monitoring in the research and education community, with over 2,000 perfSONAR nodes deployed worldwide.

While at Internet2, Dr. Boyd also lead the development of the Open Exchange Software Suite (OESS) and FlowSpace Firewall (FSFW) by the GlobalNOC at Indiana University. OESS and FSFW served as the software underpinnings of the Internet2 Advanced Layer 2 Service (AL2S). Together, both software products formed the first nation-wide, OpenFlow deployment on a national network capable of network virtualization and have been used since 2012 to run the production Internet2 backbone service.

Dr. Boyd’s other efforts at Internet2 included leading development teams that built the OSCARS and DRAGON software suites (predecessors of OESS), and widely used performance tools such as BWCTL, OWAMP, and NDT.

At Internet2, Dr. Boyd was the PI for the DOE and NSF-funded perfSONAR workshop and Internet2 co chair of the Joint Techs program committee. Dr. Boyd was the PI for Internet2’s GENI-funded OpenFlow project (experimenting with OpenFlow on the backbone), Internet2’s NSF-funded DYNES (expanding the reach for the IDC circuit framework into Internet2-member regionals and campuses), Internet2’s NSF-funded IRIS project (developing perfSONAR software on the IRNC links) and Internet2’s NSF-funded DyGIR project (developing OSCARS/DRAGON software on the IRN links). Dr. Boyd coordinated Internet2’s involvement with OGF and DICE, and oversaw Internet2’s ION, performance, transport, and information services Working Groups.

Dr. Boyd earned his doctorate at the University of Michigan, under the direction of Dr. Edward Davidson (now retired), writing his thesis on the “Performance Evaluation and Improvement of High Performance Architectures and Applications.” He served as an engineering principal in the Unix Groups of both Compaq/Digital and Hewlett-Packard writing advanced performance analysis tools for enterprise-class servers. He led the research and development group at SolidSpeed Networks, creating such products as a content delivery network, a distributed peer-to-peer website performance measuring system, and a software-based global load balancer.

Mar 08 2016
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Todd Raeker

Todd Raeker, Ph.D.

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Todd Raeker, Ph.D., is the research user experience manager for Advanced Research Computing (ARC), a division of Information and Technology Services (ITS).  

He is responsible for User and Software support, and is the manager of the ARC Scientific Computing and Research Consulting Services. 

Before joining ARC, he was the manager of computing at the U-M School of Information, and the computing manager at the U-M Department of Chemistry.

He holds a Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry from Iowa State University.

Mar 01 2016
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Jeremy Hallum

Jeremy Hallum

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Jeremy Hallum, M.A., is the research computing manager at Advanced Research Computing (ARC), a division of Information and Technology Services (ITS).

He serves as the ARC liaison to the IT staff at Michigan Medicine and is responsible for the following services:

Before joining ARC, Jeremy was the manager of high-performance computing for Medical School Information Services. He also served as the senior system administrator for the U-M Department of Astronomy. Prior to working at the University of Michigan, Jeremy was an associate systems manager at Boston University, Department of Astronomy.

Jeremy enjoys reading, RPGs, and working on projects around the house.

Feb 29 2016
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Matt Britt

Matt Britt

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Matt Britt is the high-performance computing (HPC) HPC Systems manager for Advanced Research Computing (ARC), a division of Information and Technology Services (ITS). 

He is responsible for the Great Lakes, Armis2, and Lighthouse HPC clusters job scheduling, day-to-day operations of the ARC HPC group, including hiring, employee reviews, and effort coordination.

Matt has been working in high-performance computing at the University of Michigan since 1998. He began his career at the U-M College of Engineering, and focused on the National Science Foundation’s National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NSF NPACI) that deployed HPC resources for advanced computing on a national scale and championed the Beowulf concept of clusters. U-M was also a host site for NPACI-funded services, including the Center for Advanced Computing of HPC, which later became ARC. 

He has designed increasingly complex scheduling, deployment, and accounting systems to provide HPC solutions for users, principal investigators, and the University of Michigan. He has also worked as an HPC systems administrator on batch compute systems, and on AIX, SGI, and Linux systems supporting HPC clusters.

He holds a degree from the University of Michigan in computer science (1998). 

Matt enjoys hacking on new technology, is an occasional photographer, and optimistic runner.

Feb 29 2016
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Brock Palen

Brock Palen

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Brock Palen is the director for Advanced Research Computing (ARC), a division of Information and Technology Services (ITS).

He is responsible for implementing the overall strategy of research computing infrastructure, including high-performance computing (HPC), high-throughput computing, research storage, big data (Hadoop, Spark), private/public cloud services, and consulting for researchers at the University of Michigan.

Brock holds a degree in Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences from the University of Michigan (2006). He was a member of a team that devised fuel loading for transmutation/elimination of long-lived transuranic waste to address existing high-level nuclear waste stockpile management. 

While he pursued his undergraduate degree, Palen was a member of the University of Michigan Solar Car Team from 2002-2005. Brock was also a member of the core U-M Solar Car Race Crew that traveled to Chicago, where, he, along with a few others, was responsible for power and electrical systems (solar array, power delivery, and batteries). 

Palen began his professional career in research computing in 2004 with the University of Michigan College of Engineering. He was responsible for the maintenance of machines and administrative software for thousands of CPUs spread across multiple HPC clusters and four technology platforms. He consulted on the optimization of applications and system usage, and organized HPC storage and software for research faculty and their students. He also worked on the National Science Foundation’s National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NSF NPACI). The University of Michigan was a host site for multiple NPACI-funded systems that deployed HPC resources for advanced computing on a national scale. NSF NPACI was also an early champion of the Beowulf concept of clusters, and U-M was a host site for these services that was called the Center for Advanced Computing; it later became ARC. 

From 2008 to 2019, Brock served as the University of Michigan Campus Champion for XSEDE, a single, virtual system that scientists around the world use to interactively share computing resources, data, and expertise. He was responsible for user outreach, XSEDE and TeraGrid maintenance, face-to-face training courses for HPC platforms, and software tools and technology. (XSEDE is now ACCESS.)

Palen has given talks all over the country, including the Supercomputing conference series, the Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC) conference series, XSEDE, and other invited talks on the outlook of research and high-performance computing and the impact of them on technological progress. 

Brock is the founder of MLDS Networks, a company that manages web hosting, content management systems (CMS), and consulting. He is a member of the Great Lakes section of the American Nuclear Society, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM SIG), Special Interest Group on High-Performance Computing (SIGHPC), SIG HPC Education, and a lifetime member of National Eagle Scout Association (NESA).

He enjoys co-hosting the podcast, “Research Computing and Engineering;” making and eating food, including cured smoked meat and vegetables; personal finance; agriculture; and home automation. In his spare time, Brock and his family enjoy northern Michigan lake life with their extended family.