Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate

Advancing computing and data capabilities for scientific discovery and continued U.S. technological leadership

Vision

Deliver an advanced compute and data environment that brings HPC, AI, edge computing, and disparate data to bear on problems and missions of national importance.

Mission

• Sustain leadership and scientific impact in computing and computational sciences
• Provide the world’s most powerful open advanced computing ecosystem for scalable computing and simulation, data and analytics, and scalable cyber-secure infrastructure for science
• Deliver leading-edge science relevant to missions of DOE and other federal and state agencies

About

The Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate (CCSD) oversees Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL’s) immense store of computing power and its talented staff of computational scientists and mathematicians, conducting state-of-the-art research and development in support of the Department of Energy's (DOE's) missions and programs.

The directorate houses the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), home to the world's first and fastest exascale supercomputer, Frontier. ORNL delivered Frontier to advance leadership-class computing for open science. Frontier enables us to address, with greater complexity and higher fidelity, questions concerning who we are, as well as our place on earth and in the universe. 

CCSD contains the institutional knowledge needed to transform basic science into cutting-edge energy and security applications critical to national interests. Our organization is committed to research and development in the data sciences, including the modeling, simulation, and analysis of rapidly growing data sources.

ORNL also has a rich tradition of artificial intelligence (AI) research dating back more than four decades and garnering more than ten patents. The laboratory's AI Initiative is dedicated to ensuring safe, trustworthy, and energy efficient AI in the service of scientific research and national security. CCSD has the expertise and resources required to continue advancing AI, as well as high-performance computing, applied mathematics, software development, and quantum information science. 

The strength of our base programs contributed to the establishment of a DOE Office of Science National Quantum Information Science Research Center known as the Quantum Science Center. The QSC aims to design materials that enable topological quantum computing, implement new quantum sensors to characterize topological states and detect dark matter, and design quantum algorithms and simulations to provide greater understanding of quantum materials, chemistry, and quantum field theories.