More than 200 professionals from around the globe work together each year to design and deliver SCinet. To better understand the complexity of bringing SCinet to life for the SC Conference, we invite attendees, exhibitors, and volunteers to get to know the teams operating behind the scenes.
SCinet Live Operations
Sat–Fri, 14–20 Nov 2026
SCinet ChairDylan Jacob, Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
SCinet Vice ChairCorey Eichelberger, Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC)
The Architecture Team works closely with the SCinet Technical Director to document the overall network design, and interconnection between components. They work closely with other teams to describe network topology, and are ultimately responsible for the correct assignment of all network resources. The team produces a pedantically accurate map of SCinet that is used by all teams to ensure correctness in design, implementation, and operation.
The Automation Team is responsible for developing software to streamline the management of repetitive tasks within SCinet: configuration of servers, switches, routers, and services. This team works closely with other technical teams to gather requirements, and implement a system that underpins the management of all SCinet infrastructure.
The Cluster Team designs a set of computation and storage resources for use in SCinet. They work closely with technical teams to ensure proper connectivity and access, along with integration with SCinet research efforts such as INDIS, NRE, and XNet to define and support use cases.
The Communications Team provides marketing communications support in advance of and during the conference, including developing online content, contributing SCinet content to the monthly SC newsletter, drafting SCinet content for the conference program guide, writing press releases, and editing SCinet vendor communications.
The Contributor Relations Team is in place to advocate for and provide support, information, and assistance to the SCinet contributors who contribute millions of dollars in equipment and services needed to build and support SCinet each year for the SC Conference. The team ensures that contributors are familiar with the information provided in the SCinet Contributor Guidelines and that they are able to derive the greatest benefit possible for their time, expertise, and solutions delivered.
The DevOps Team runs the internal software infrastructure for SCinet and works to automate the flow of information to the various entities that need it. The team administers the main database that stores team member information and manages access, mail servers, customer connection requests, and configurations for tools operated by other teams. The DevOps Team also maintains the infrastructure that monitors and measures network flows to ensure services and provide alerts when there are issues, and operates critical network services such as NTP, DNS, and DHCP.
The Edge Team is responsible for the wired and wireless edge networks for the SC conference. This team provides network connectivity for conference workshops and tutorials, conference committee rooms, conference registration, Network Operations Center, Student Cluster Challenge, and wireless access points in public areas throughout the convention center and the exhibit floor.
The Experimental Networks Team engages partners in research, education, and industry to facilitate high-performance networking experiments during the SC Conference within SCinet. These experiments may span multiple years, and the results serve to push the boundaries of network technologies and set the stage for SCinet’s continuous evolution to meet the network-intensive needs of the HPC community during SC.
The Fiber Team is responsible for building the physical layer of SCinet. This team installs miles of aerial and floor fiber to connect exhibitor booth equipment to the network. During the conference, the group is responsible for troubleshooting and repair of damaged fiber.
The Help Desk Team serves as the first point of contact for exhibitors regarding all SCinet services. The team provides tier-one support to exhibitors and escalates requests to other teams as necessary for resolution. The SCinet help desk operates year round, but is most busy during the execution of the conference.
The Logistics Team is tasked with ensuring the delivery and logistical support for owned and loaned SCinet equipment. The team works closely with the Contributor Relations team, and the conference committee, to ensure that freight is delivered in a timely manner for staging, setup, and show.
The Network Research Exhibition Team empowers researchers, computer scientists, and network engineers to experiment using the state-of-the-art SCinet network. The team helps display new and innovative demonstrations in network testbeds, emerging network hardware, protocols, and advanced network-intensive scientific applications. The team also assists in the execution of the annual Innovating the Network for Data-Intensive Science (INDIS) workshop, which facilitates discussion of network-intensive demonstrations and advancements related to high-performance networking. The workshop showcases the latest advances in academic and industry research that exploit SCinet’s capabilities or inform its future developments.
The Network Security Team is charged with protecting SCinet contributor, exhibitor, and attendee resources during the conference. Activities of the team include filtering harmful network traffic, detecting and preventing compromised systems, and mitigating the effects of compromised systems. The team starts monitoring immediately upon SCinet turnup, and remains vigilant until the network is shutdown.
The Power Team provides the basic power infrastructure for all SCinet gear in the network operations center and distributed network operations centers. They work closely with all teams to understand power needs, specify the proper methods for delivery, and monitor status throughout the show to ensure reliable delivery.
The Routing Team is responsible for installing, configuring, and supporting both the high-performance conference network on the exhibit floor, as well as the Science Connector network that is utilized by the Cluster and Network Research Exhibition teams for research, demonstration, and experimentation purposes. The Routing Team coordinates external connectivity with commodity internet and research and education wide area network service providers across numerous circuits provided by the WAN Team.
The Volunteer Services Team supports the integration of SCinet student volunteers with their assigned teams and connects them with information, resources, and activities. During setup and throughout the conference, this team serves as the first point of contact for all SCinet volunteers.
The WAN Transport Team is responsible for delivering multiple wide area network circuits to the convention center, and to partners around the world. Typically, this requires utilizing dark fiber resources in the facility, acquiring wave-division multiplexing transport equipment, and engineering, building, and supporting a metropolitan area transport system.
SCinet can’t be run without volunteers and contributors. Learn how your efforts or generosity can make a difference. SCinet needs you.
