SD2E began as the DARPA SD2 program Environment for enabling advanced scientific modeling and computation. The Synergistic Discovery and Design (SD2) program is focused upon developing data-based approaches for accelerating scientific discovery and the design of robust models in new domains of research. More information on SD2 can be found here.

SD2E now serves SD2 and other related data-driven scientific programs. SD2E consists of this web-portal; a web-based research workbench, a RESTful APIs (Tapis) and function-as-a-service (Abaco) linking computational applications and workflows with command line access and control via web-portal; high performance advanced computational and data storage hardware; and the skilled personnel supporting scientists in their use of the computational resources. Additional tools incorporated into SD2E include JupyterHub, Gitlab, Jenkins, Redash, and Synbiohub. Access control to data and software is maintained at multiple levels, allowing private user-only access during initial testing, followed by project level shared access, and finally publishing capabilities.

SD2E is managed by the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), where many of the world’s most powerful research computing resources are designed and operated. More information on TACC resources can be found here.