2016 ADCIRC User’s Group Meeting and ADCIRC Boot Camp

Mark your calendars for the 2016 ADCIRC Users Group Meeting (May 5-6) and ADCIRC Boot Camp (May 2-4)!

ADCIRC Users Group Meeting

When: Thursday – Friday May 5-6, 2016
Where: U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory in Vicksburg, Mississippi

This year’s ADCIRC Users Group Meeting also contains a new component: the ADCIRC Career Fair. Presenters that will be available for employment opportunities or graduate school admission within the next 6 months will be highlighted and are encouraged to take advantage of this professional networking opportunity.

Every year, the ADCIRC Community comes together to share experiences, teach, learn, discuss, plan, and build capacity for coastal ocean modeling with ADCIRC. These activities are organized
into two distinct but mutually supportive events: the ADCIRC Users Group Meeting (including the ADCIRC Career Fair) and the ADCIRC Boot Camp. This year, these two events will be held back-to-back at the CHL in Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA.

Chris Massey and Mary Cialone at the ERDC CHL are pleased to host the 2016 ADCIRC Users Group Meeting. The Meeting is informal with a commitment to open and frank discussion of shared experiences, allowing the ADCIRC community to advance their knowledge and skill in developing, implementing, and applying the ADCIRC family of models.

Because these events will be held at a Federal facility, there are particular security requirements for international participants. The host site has produced a standard form in Word format (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5-aWQumyGFyZW9oQWVEbXF6enc/view?usp=sharing) that international participants should use to record the following information before emailing it to Chris.Massey@usace.army.mil before 8 April 2016:

Name
Nationality (home country)
Job Title
Affiliated organization (company, university, etc.)
Date(s) of visit (May 2-6, 2016)
Purpose of visit (brief explanation): Attend the ADCIRC Users Group Meeting and ADCIRC “Boot Camp” training seminar.
Lab(s) visiting: Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory
Lab Points of Contact (POC) with work phone: Dr. Chris Massey, 601-634-2406 and Ms. Mary Cialone, 601-634-2139.
Level of classification: Unclassified
A copy of a passport with a photo ID is also required.

ADCIRC Boot Camp

When: Monday – Wednesday May 2-4, 2016
Where: U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory in Vicksburg, Mississippi

The 2016 ADCIRC Boot Camp is a three day training event (1 April to 3 April) organized by Jason Fleming of Seahorse Coastal Consulting. The Boot Camp is an intense information and training session for new ADCIRC users. It could be considered a “forced march” of knowledge transfer, hence the name “Boot Camp”.

The Boot Camp will provide the full spectrum of knowledge required to create, run, and analyze a coastal regional model using ADCIRC; this includes the ADCIRC model itself as well as pre- and post-processing tools. Dr. Jason Fleming (Seahorse Coastal Consulting) will be teaching the ADCIRC Track of the Boot Camp, and in a separate and simultaneous parallel track, Dr. Alan Zundel (Aquaveo) will demonstrate and discuss the most commonly used meshing and analysis software in the ADCIRC Community: the Surface-water Modeling Solution (or SMS) from Aquaveo.

 SMS Track from Alan Zundel of Aquaveo includes:

1. The modeling process within SMS (overview)
2. Background data (images, surveys/LIDAR/DEM)
3. Conceptual model (vector coastline databases, features, GIS)
4. Mesh generation for ADCIRC
5. Mesh editing
6. ADCIRC parameter specification

ADCIRC Track from Jason Fleming of Seahorse Coastal Consulting:

1. Comprehensive coverage of ADCIRC’s fort.15 (control) file, each parameter, line-by-line
2. Nodal attributes file (fort.13)
3. Output files, including hotstart files
4. Use of parametric vortex wind models for tropical cyclones
5. Discussion of boundaries and boundary conditions, including tidal B.C.s
   and levee B.C.s
6. The ADCIRC Surge Guidance System (ASGS)

The SMS software is used to visually create and modify input files for ADCIRC and is widely used in the ADCIRC community for this purpose, as well as visualization of results. For these reasons, knowledge of the SMS software is practically required for new ADCIRC users.

The 2016 training regimen will also include the ADCIRC Surge Guidance System (ASGS), a system for automating the execution of ADCIRC, either in real time or for an engineering design study. Real time applications of the ASGS have included the Deepwater Horizon event in 2010, as well as hurricanes Irene, Isaac, and Sandy.

Jason Fleming of Seahorse Coastal Consulting has led the development of the ASGS since 2006 and will conduct a session called ASGS Up and Running on Monday, 2 May. This training session will cover the installation and operation of the ASGS, and is intended to enable trainees to run their own scenarios and finish the day with an ASGS system that is ready for production.

Training Schedule

• Monday, 2 May 2016
  • 9am to 5pm, ASGS Up and Running, or
  • 9am to 5pm, SMS Introduction (trainee’s choice that day)
• Tuesday, 3 May 2016
  • 9am to 5pm, ADCIRC, or
  • 9am to 5pm, SMS In Depth (trainee’s choice that day)
• Wednesday, 4 May 2016: 9am to 5:00pm ADCIRC Applications (plenary)
  

Boot Camp Event Includes

• Boxed lunches
• Printed manuals
• Morning and afternoon snacks with coffee and water

Engaging Format

The presentation style will be a mix of lecture, demonstration, and interactive discussion. The instructors will also specify hands-on work for those trainees that have a laptop with them.

Value

The three days that a new ADCIRC user invests in this training event could save weeks of project time spent in guesswork and trial-and-error. The Boot Camp also provides value for more experienced users, because the discussion includes the underlying rationale behind various features, as well as highlighting time-saving tips and tricks that are not especially prominent in the documentation.

The registration fee includes light lunches and morning and afternoon coffee breaks and snacks for all three days of the Boot Camp. Break times present great opportunities for professional networking as well as knowledge transfer and sharing of ideas among ADCIRC users at all levels of experience.

Some representative feedback from past attendees:

“I liked the format of the adcirc portion of going through each parameter. Thanks again, I think we all got a lot out of it.”

“I thought the Boot Camp was awesome.  For researchers like me, it was extremely beneficial to get into the guts of the mechanisms behind the scenes of the fort files. … [the] format was engaging.”