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Cyberinfrastructure Summit
July 10-11, 2007
Hyatt Regency Tech Center, Denver, CO
Facilitator: Patrick Sanaghan, President, Sanaghan Group
EDUCAUSE Contact: Mark Luker, Vice President
Summary of the CI Summit
Plenary: An Overview of Cyberinfrastructure—What It Is, and Why We Care
Peter Siegel, CIO and Vice Provost, Information and Educational Technology, University of California, Davis
- Cyberinfrastructure Presentation [PPT 8,322 KB]
- Normally don’t frame CI conversation to bring in other disciplines beyond physicists and chemists.
- Instead of concentrating on reducing costs, how can we find additional, needed resources?
- Emphasized NSF CI Vision for 21st Century Discovery as a contract with HEC.
- Need to explain CI in the context of undergraduate education (show CI is not in competition with education).
- Bridging the "cultural divide" with faculty vital for active collaboration.
- Note that middle application layer of CI is not static.
- We (and NSF) need to put pressure/motivation on HEC administrators to prioritize CI now!
- Faculty CI knowledge is mainly limited to core services.
- There is a need to get further out on the curve in CI strategic planning.
- The recent CI workshop involved mostly computational scientists, with some representation from the humanities.
- Sources of funding are always challenging.
- NSF funding of individual researcher has led to fragmentation, which is being emulated by other funding agencies.
Plenary: Update on the Campus Cyberinfrastructure (CCI) Working Group
Patrick Dreher, Cochair, CCI/Project Director and Research Scientist, MIT
- Campus Cyberinfrastructure Working Group Presentation [PPT 3,150 KB]
- The group has a mission to help with institutional strategies and suggested resource deployment for CI deployment as well as to help researchers use the capabilities of these new integrated IT tools and systems.
- The CCI is focusing on two goals currently – 1/ Defining Cyberinfrastructure for Campus Leaders and 2/ Business Models for Data Centers.
- Need to have research faculty engaged. They way faculty interact impacts how we implement CI on various campuses. Challenge to have an organized faculty group step-up, but it is a key component. Key thing is convening researchers.
- Regarding, ROI, there is a need to have a clear understanding on what you’re investing in. It depends on what are your end goals.
Group Discussion - Day 1
Lightning Round: Status of Cyberinfrastructure on Selected Campuses
Jim Bottum, Vice Provost for Computing and IT and CIO, Clemson University
- Bottum Presentation [PPT 481 KB]
- Clemson approach is using a four piece framework from NSF vision document.
- Believe central investment is needed.
- Believe in facilities based approach for wide-area networks.
- Linking high-end research tools into everyday learning.
- Surprised how quickly faculty are joining this process and teaching.
- A steady funding stream is required.
Brad Wheeler, CIO, Dean, and Professor, Indiana University
- Wheeler Presentation [PPT 566 KB]
- $105 million in external grants, so partnering element is strong.
- There are no SLAs in place.
- It takes time to develop relationships and trust. There is no magic formula to bring folks in.
- President had vision that IT important to university of the future.
Bonnie Neas, Associate Vice President for Cyberinfrastructure, North Dakota University System
- Today CI is driven by bottom up from researchers.
- 2000-01 five year plan for CI.
- 2003 consortia formed.
- 2005 4 EPSCOR states received planning grant from NSF for Northern Tier.
- Professional development and training are key.
David Walker, Director of Advanced Technology, University of California Office of the President
- Walker Presentation [PPT 135 KB]
- Academic cyberinfrastructure is a key component of the recommendations for research and scholarship of the IT Guidance Committee at UC.
- Advanced network services for all campuses, compute and storage upgrades, and a common web interface benefit all users.
- There is ubiquitous access to services critical to research, scholarship, and instruction.
Topics of Interest for Information Discussions
- Approval routing for grant proposals
- Collaboration and virtual communities
- Specific ideas for how to get this on the radar screen of my administration
- How we get NSF and other agencies to see HEC as a critical partner
- Funding models for research
- Rural based data management
- Ideas how to work cross-culturally with the library community
- How to get rid of older clusters
- How do we hire presidents like IU?
Group Discussion - Day 2
Attendees
Recommended Readings
- National Science Foundation (NSF) Cyberinfrastructure Council, Cyberinfrastructure Vision for 21st Century Discovery (Arlington, Va.: NSF, March 2007)
- Chuck Henry, “National Centers for Cyberinfrastructure: CLIR’s Strategic Contribution,” CLIR Issues, no. 57 (May/June 2007)
- Peter A. Freeman and Guy T. Almes, “Campus Cyberinfrastructure: A Crucial Enabler for Science,” EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 40, no. 1 (January/February 2005): 64–65
- Jim Bottum, Patrick Dreher, and Bonnie Neas, “The Challenge of Campus Cyberinfrastructure,” presentation at EDUCAUSE 2006, October 2006
- Thomas J Hacker and Bradley C. Wheeler, “Making Research Cyberinfrastructure a Strategic Choice,” EDUCAUSE Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 1 (2007): 21–29
- Mark H. Ellisman, “Cyberinfrastructure and the Future of Collaborative Work,” Issues in Science and Technology (Fall 2005)
- Gary R. Bertoline, “Cyberinfrastructure-Enabled Learning Environments for Gen Z,” presentation at ELI Spring Focus Session, March 2007
- EDUCAUSE Cyberinfrastructure Activities flyer
- Campus Cyberinfrastructure Days wiki
- Harvey Blustain, with Sandra Braman, Richard N. Katz, and Gail Salaway, IT Engagement in Research: A Baseline Study (Boulder, Colo.: EDUCAUSE Center for Research, Key Findings, 2006)
- Ken Klingenstein, Kevin Morooney, Steve Olshansky, Final Report: A Workshop on Effective Approaches to Campus Research Computing Cyberinfrastructure (Arlington, VA.: National Science Foundation, July, 2006)
Page Last Updated: Wednesday, August 22, 2007
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