The IT Center is a central institution of RWTH Aachen University. It is led by a director appointed by the Rector's Office. The director makes executive decisions about the use of funding, staff, facilities and equipment, as made available by the Rector’s Office.
The management of the IT Center receives assistance from a steering group appointed by the Rector’s Office where fundamental issues are concerned. This group consists of important clients of the IT center as well as IT specialists.
The Director represents the IT Center to external constituencies; his or her main mandate is to ensure sustainable, reliable, and excellent information technology services at RWTH Aachen. The Director seeks to guarantee customer-orientation and transparency in the everyday activities of the IT Center.
The Director takes on strategy and planning responsibilities, so as to make sure that the IT infrastructure at the University is continually improved. The IT Center is to fulfill its role as a partner in information technology, both university-wide and beyond.
The Director is supported by two Managing Directors who act on his behalf in his absence. The Director and the two Managing Directors constitute the Executive of the IT Center.
The IT Center has a Chief Executive Director who is a member of the IT Center's management and the Director's permanent representative. In order to ensure the proper operation as well as the organizational development of the IT Center, the Director has delegated to the Chief Executive Director the responsibility for the structural and procedural organization.
The Chief Executive Director is the direct manager for all department heads. He reports directly to the Director.
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
There is a strategy executive at the IT Center, namely the Chief Technology Officer. The main responsibility of the CTO is to investigate new IT technologies and assess their suitability for use at RWTH Aachen. Furthermore, he or she makes recommendations as to how the IT infrastructure and services best can support the implementation of the University's institutional strategy. The CTO has responsibility for the IT Center's technological development and its external funding strategy.
The “Chief HPC Officer” defines the strategy of the IT Center in High Performance Computing (HPC) for RWTH Aachen University and as a service provider for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the NHR Alliance. He manages the implementation in IT infrastructure and systems and the further development of the associated services. The CHO coordinates the corresponding third-party funded projects and applied research activities in HPC at the IT Center and reports to the Director. He also acts as a representative of the Director of the IT Center in relevant committees and networks in this area and maintains cooperation with other universities, research institutions and companies in the HPC field.
In addition to its original tasks, the IT Center increasingly sees itself as a member of state or nationwide projects and consortia. These consortia are characterized by the fact that a project-based governance structure is often predominant. In addition to project management, steering groups, advisory boards, etc. are available. For the administrative, organisational and communicative tasks within the framework of these projects, coordination offices are set up, for sustainably established structures, branch offices.
The HPC offices are responsible for the overall coordination of HPC joint projects. These currently include the HPC.NRW competence network as well as the cooperation with Forschungszentrum Jülich within the framework of the JARA Center for Simulation and Data Science. The HPC offices assume the classical tasks of science management such as coordination of the internal organization of the project, fund management, external presentation and reporting to the funding agency. In addition, together with the project management, they develop strategies for the further development of existing and for the application of new cooperation projects.
The head of the HPC offices reports directly to the director of the IT Center and represents the HPC cooperation projects on his behalf also externally.
The National Research Data Infrastructure for Engineering Sciences (NFDI4Ing) brings together all engineering research communities and fosters the management of their research data. Under the leadership of RWTH Aachen University, eight university and three non-university research institutions are joining forces in a dedicated consortium that is open to outsiders. The consortium's administrative office is located at the IT Center in Aachen and at the University Computing Centre (HRZ) in Darmstadt. Tasks include internal project organization and committee work, external communication, strategic development of the consortium, the management of funds and reporting to the funding agency. Funding is based on an agreement between the federal government and the states (Note: only available in German).
The administrative office assists the consortium's team of spokespersons. The team consists of the spokesperson, Prof. Robert H. Schmitt, from RWTH Aachen University, and his deputy, Prof. Peter F. Pelz, from Technische Universität Darmstadt.
Staff Position Building and Data Center Management
The staff unit Building and Data Center Management reports to the Managing Director of the IT Center and is the central contact for the topics Data Center Infrastructure and Energy Management, both internally and externally (for departments 10 and 11 as well as for building and property operations). The staff unit is particularly responsible for the development and anchoring of energy efficiency and resource conservation in the operational concept. It is also responsible for office and room planning in all IT Center buildings.
Each division at the IT Center focuses on certain key competencies. In this way, the IT Center is able to offer a broad range of services and to address the challengens of the future. The division heads are responsible for their respective focus areas. They support the managing directors and report to the Director of the IT Center.
Computational Science & Engineering
The division "Computational Science & Engineering" (CSE) supports the chairs and research institutes at RWTH Aachen University in their CSE activities. Key areas include high-performance computing, data visualization, and teaching and learning. Apart from providing IT infrastructure and basic services, the division contributes to research and teaching in methods and tools in parallel programming, explorative data analysis, and virtual reality. The division offers vocational training for Mathematical-Technical Software Developers, which is part of the dual degree program "Scientific Programming" offered by FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences.
Finance, Human Resources & Organizational Support
The core responsibility of the division "Finance, Human Resources & Organizational Support" (FPO) is to support the areas research, services, and teaching, especially with regard to organizational processes in the fields of finance, resource planning, HR management, and conformance to legal and RWTH-internal requirements.
IT Service & Security Management
The IT Service & Security Management (ITSSM) division establishes, controls and develops the IT Center's IT service management processes (ITSM processes) for service provisioning, service operation, reporting and support, among other things. To realize these tasks, the division employs three IT managers who are responsible for the core processes.
Further information and definitions of the IT managers can be found under IT Service Management.
The division "Networks" is responsible for operating the RWTH Aachen University communication infrastructure, including the data core network, a large number of building networks, the WIFI infrastructure, the telephone system, and support in case of problems with telephone sets. The division provides the relevant infrastructures, including power supplies, cabling technology, selection and procurement of network hardware, and operation and maintenance of the logical network technology. Furthermore, it maintains the connection to the WiN Science Network and secures the energy-efficient operation of the IT Center facilities and devices.
Process Management and Digitalization Learning & Teaching
The division "Process Management and Digitalization Learning & Teaching", short PDSL, supports students, faculties and central departments of RWTH Aachen University in process design, requirements analysis, introduction, integration and further development of efficient and sustainable IT solutions for cross-user and cross-institutional business processes at RWTH Aachen University. The process support refers to the areas of Student Life Cycle Management (SLCM), E-Learning, E-Science with a focus on research data management and the RWTHapp. The main task of the division is the management and further development of the central applications for the important business processes of RWTH Aachen University together with the cooperation partners in the Central University Administration (ZHV), the faculties and the University Library (UB).
Research Process & Data Management
The division "Research Process & Data Management" (RPDM) supports researchers, chairs, research groups, collaborative research projects such as Collaborative Research Centers and Excellence Clusters, and external partners in digitizing the core process of research. The division is responsible for services that promote good scientific practice, FAIR principles, open science, and open source. This is achieved on the one hand by providing contextual and technical advice to researchers and overseeing research processes (data stewardship). In addition, existing processes and services for research data management are analyzed and integrated, and the management of scientific resources is supported. In the context of national and international initiatives, the division acts as a service provider for external research institutions on a national and international level. This is accompanied by the implementation of collaborative projects and participation in consortia, e.g. NFDI or NHR, with researchers inside and outside RWTH, as well as cooperation with commercially-oriented providers.
The division "Service & Communication" (SeKo) is the IT Center's primary gateway to the outside world. As Single Point of Contact (SPoC), it is responsible for providing users and customers with first-level support for all IT services provided by the IT Center. A quality management system certified according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2015 ensures the implementation and maintenance of support-relevant processes. In addition, the division coordinates all marketing and event activities of the IT Center. To ensure the quality of these services, the division ensures continuous process optimisation and documentation of knowledge - because the responsibility of the Service & Communication division only ends when a satisfactory solution has been provided for the customer.
The division "Systems & Operation" (SuB) supports the areas services, research, and teaching by operating central hardware and software systems. Its central services, which can be used by staff, students, and other university members, include backup, archiving, high-performance computing, and e-mail services. Its services in the areas of server virtualization, databases, web hosting, authentication, managed services, and soft- and hardware procurement significantly contribute to the provision of IT infrastructure of RWTH Aachen University.
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