Dear Vicky, John and Jim,

 

 

Thank you again for taking the time to visit our group in Ann Arbor last week. We were pleased to have the opportunity to report on our accomplishments and to share with you our aspirations.

 

As promised, I am providing links for various materials associated with the visit along with hardcopies of the presentations and our Computing Document. Included are:

 

  1. all transparencies shown by the speakers ( http://atlas.physics.lsa.umich.edu/docushare/dscgi/ds.py/Get/File-1584/ATLAS_Co mputing_Site_Visit_Agenda.htm )
  2. the final version of the UM ATLAS Computing Document ( http://atlas.physics.lsa.umich.edu/docushare/dscgi/ds.py/Get/File-1598/comp_sit e_visit.ps )
  3. a copy of our Web Archive paper ( http://vesuvio.physics.lsa.umich.edu/um-atlas/collab/docs/wlap2001.doc )

We have reflected on our exchanges during the visit, the constraints you indicated you faced, and the challenges we face as we seek to insure we will be able to make major contributions to ATLAS in the years ahead. Taking all of these factors into account, in responding to your inquiry as to what we suggest as next steps, we wish to propose the following actions:

 

  1. that the University of Michigan be formally designated via a software MOU as a US ATLAS entity with responsibility for leading the US ATLAS networking and collaborative tools initiatives. Of course, detailed project plans and milestones could be incorporated in the relevant MOU.
  2. that a funding “goal” be set for providing this entity with support at the annual level of 1 FTE ($85K) and S/E ($50K [additional to current $20K]) as soon as practical, if such funding is not secured through the pending NSF proposals.

Advantages we see to such action are that we have already been asked to carry out these tasks, the leveraging factor for the US ATLAS contribution is potentially huge, carrying out these tasks in any other way would likely cost US ATLAS much more, and we would be provided with a formal basis for securing university support. Were there firm plans for Tier2-type competitions in the near future, one could imagine that it would be appropriate to wait before taking the above actions. But since such a competition is not on the immediate horizon, and since the responsibilities we would have are already assigned to us, and because of the boost we could receive now from university sources in connection with the MGRID initiative, we would urge you to act now.

 

Our request is very modest because we are aware of the difficult funding constraints being faced by US ATLAS. We believe we can help by aggressively seeking internal and non-project external funding. Our goal is to find ways to keep Shawn, Tom, Andy, Bill and others at Michigan fully functioning as a team and tightly focused on US ATLAS computing priorities.

 

Again, thank you for the opportunity to have a dialog on our future activities.

 

Sincerely yours,

 

 

Homer A. Neal

 

 

 

 

 

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