DOD seeks improved collaboration

A new contract for the Defense Department’s high-performance computing program seeks to improve collaboration among government agencies, industry and academia. Also under the contract, users of DOD’s high-performance computing resources will receive training and support. The contractor must also provide the knowledge, support and tools to maximize productivity. The contractor will be expected to foster collaboration across the national high-performance computing communities. The General Services Administration issued the request Oct. 18 on behalf of DOD's High Performance Computing Modernization Office. The program is named the User Productivity Enhancement, Technology Transfer and Training (PETTT). The PETTT program is designed to assist with the research and development objectives of the DOD high-performance computing user community, DOD said, and PETT will focus on enhancing user productivity through training and support. One of the goals of the contract is to build collaborative computational and computer science software research and development relationships with DOD science and engineering teams. The contract will further facilitate collaboration among DOD researchers and institutions on computational problems of interest for national defense. The contract will have a two-month transition/phase-in period, a 12-month base period, four one-year option periods and five one-year award-term periods.