#  Roadmap: Sid & IQSS Research Computing  

 



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   ![Sid Research Computing](/sites/g/files/omnuum8171/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/harvard-iqss/files/sid_logo.png?itok=ttGfFj2j) 

 

[Sid Verba](/verba) was a beloved professor who unified disparate groups and made Harvard better. Sid is our branding of the [Open OnDemand](https://openondemand.org/) software to unify and enhance the research computing user experience at Harvard.

The Strategic Goals of the Sid Project are our highest-level guide.

Our goals are the following:

- Provide focused researcher support to the social science community with an emphasis on improving the user experience for researchers working with sensitive data.
- Support IQSS users with an expanded backend infrastructure via a multitenant secure research environment (FASSE) and scalable set of compute nodes (Cannon) in collaboration with Faculty of Arts and Sciences Research Computing group ([FASRC](https://www.rc.fas.harvard.edu/)) as well as VM support via the New England Research Cloud ([NERC](https://nerc.mghpcc.org/)).
- Orient the Sid branding of the Open OnDemand platform to benefit the user experience for all FASRC High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster users.
- Lead development of research computing-based software products that support a broad scope of researchers across the Harvard community.
- Provide access to additional Harvard apps such as [Dataverse](https://dataverse.org/) and [WorldMap](https://worldmap.maps.arcgis.com/home/index.html) from a common framework.
- Participate in the HPC open-source community, focused on the Open OnDemand HPC User Interface.

The following roadmap shows our accomplishments during the 2024-2025 academic year and our anticipated projects and activities during the 2025-2026 academic year.

[ ![Sid roadmap flowchart](/sites/g/files/omnuum8171/files/2026-02/sid_it_ops_roadmap_FY25-FY26.png)

 ](https://www.iq.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum8171/files/2026-02/sid_it_ops_roadmap_FY25-FY26.png)[View full size](https://www.iq.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum8171/files/2026-02/sid_it_ops_roadmap_FY25-FY26.png)

## Our primary projects for 2025-2026

Highlights among the above roadmap are the following:

- User experience research and usability testing
- Expand and improve research computing documentation
- Configure additional features on Sid (Open OnDemand)
- Continued automation of IQSS metrics
- Developing and deploying the LOOP application
- Open OnDemand community involvement
- Automate hosting of SlaveVoyages web site on NERC
- Continued collaboration on Okta integration for FASRC