Lessons from the Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI) Cyberinfrastructure (CI) Institute [MSI-CI 2 ]...
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Transcript of Lessons from the Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI) Cyberinfrastructure (CI) Institute [MSI-CI 2 ]...
Lessons from the Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI)
Cyberinfrastructure (CI) Institute [MSI-CI2]
NCSA Workshop August 7 2006http://www.educationgrid.org
The Demographic RevolutionProviding a scalable equitable
mechanism for developing a CI-enabled science and engineering workforce
Basic Ideas• Cyberinfrastructure is critical to all involved in
Research and Education• Cyberinfrastructure is intrinsically democratic
supporting broad participation• MSI’s should lead MSI integration with
Cyberinfrastructure• One should guide the projects with experts• One should aim at scalable (systemic) approaches• Goal is peer collaborations involving all institutions of
higher education
Some Key Participants• Al Kuslikis: Director of STEM project development at the American Indian
Higher Education Consortium AIHEC• Alex Ramírez: Director of information technology initiatives at the Hispanic
Association of Colleges and Universities HACU• Selena Singleton: Chief of programs at the National Association for Equity in
Higher Education NAFEO– Karl Barnes and Calvin Lowe also help a lot from NAFEO
• Richard Aló: Director of the Center for Computational Science (CCSDS) at UHD University of Houston Downtown; PI MSI-CIEC Proposal
• Diane Baxter: Director of outreach and education at the San Diego Supercomputing Center SDSC
• Geoffrey Fox: Director of the Community Grids Lab at Indiana University, Visiting Scholar for CI Development at the Alliance for Equity In Higher Education, and Senior Research Associate at CCSDS UHD.
• Others such as Scott Lathrop from TeraGrid and NCSA organizers of this meeting have been essential!
Sources of Lessons and Backdrop• Evaluation of major meetings performed by Julie
Foertsch• Interaction with community during operation of MSI-CI2 • Note MSI-CI2 is one year proposal ending in 2 months;
PI Fox as visitor to Alliance• MSI-CI2 succeeded by two year MSI-CIEC
(Cyberinfrastructure Empowerment Coalition) project with PI Richard Alo UHD University of Houston Downtown and co-PI’s Ramirez, Fox et al.
• MSI-CI2 directly spawned successful CITeam proposal from Linda Hayden at HBCU Elizabeth City State University on Cyberinfrastructure for Remote Sensing of ice sheets with co-PI Fox– This is part of CReSIS a Science and Technology Center led
by Kansas University
Advisory Team• Malcolm Atkinson, NESC (UK National e-Science Center),
ICEAGE (EU Grid Education)• Fran Berman, SDSC• Jay Boisseau, TACC• Charles Catlett, TeraGrid• Kelvin Droegemeier, Oklahoma, LEAD• Tom Dunning, NCSA• Mark Ellisman, SDSC, BIRN• Ian Foster, Chicago, Open Science Grid Globus etc• Juan Meza, LBL• Dan Reed, UNC, Renaissance Computing• Richard Tapia, Rice• Larry Smarr, UCSD, Cal(IT)2
Key Objectives Mobilize the MSI faculty and student community
Minority Serving Institutions starting with a few but eventually reaching the over 335 in AIHEC HACU and NAFEO
Provide access to physical infrastructure needed to support participation
Support curriculum development, research, mentoring, and teaching teams
Exploit key Cyberinfrastructure (Grid) resources Develop portal (mashup) supporting broad participation in CI Improve our processes through evaluation
Proje\ct Venues
Major MSI CII Project ActivitiesPlanning and Education (train the trainer) meetings at
SC05 and Global Grid Forum (not so successful) and
January 30-31 Planning SDSC
General Summer School (June 26-30) SDSC
Supporting your own CI (April and August) NCSA
All Access Grid enabled
Lots of planning and discussion leading to MSI-CIEC
MSI-CI2 Lessons I• There are many wonderful broad-based CI activities that can
be leveraged by MSI’s– TeraGrid itself, NSF/State centers, OSG, GGF, SCxx,
International projects (Pragma, ICEAGE)– So move from providing fully customized activities to
modifying/using existing networks, computers (as in TeraGrid), workshops, Summer Schools – this can SCALE!!
– Work with outreach activities like EPIC, Global CyberBridges and SACNAS
• Need to involve all parts of a MSI including administration, faculty and students– Borrow campus visits from successful AN-MSI project
(networks)
MSI-CI2 Lessons II• Can support application-specific projects such as “CI for ice-
sheet remote sensing” (CReSIS) where MSI Elizabeth City State University leads CI-enablement– Interesting that MSI leading traditional university
powerhouses into “next” generation (Cyberinfrastructure)• Leverage and encourage REU and related research experience
activities• Encourage internship and mentoring opportunities• Can extend to Community Colleges and K-12 (pipeline)• Collaboration, coordination, and trust-building across
institutional, cultural, and geographical barriers essential– Good to use more CI to enable! (not trivial to be systemic)
MSI and National Cyberinfrastructure• There are several MSI’s that can become TeraGrid (National
Cyberinfrastructure) providers but we need to consider providing needed home institution support needing some or all of:– Fund local infrastructure support– Provide a “simpler” TeraGrid-lite software stack– Provide (remote) MSI CI Operations Center to help– Use VM technology and shared desktops to allow remote hardware
and remote support (Building proposal to explore this)– Note ECSU had all local hardware removed from proposal and asked
to build a Science Gateway to TeraGrid• All MSI’s need TeraGrid access but its not clear what this requires
– Local Infrastructure for local research and education– Science Gateway “just” needs a Web browser?
• Partnerships between MSI’s and experienced TeraGrid institution• Broadening Participation component of Campus Partnership RAT
Who was at SDSC June Meeting?• 30 male and 3 female respondents to SDSC June workshop
survey included • 12 representatives from Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), • 11 representatives from Historically Black Colleges &
Universities (HBCUs), • 7 representatives from Tribal Colleges & Universities (TCUs), • and one representative from a non-profit center working with
MSIs. • Of those who responded, 19 were faculty members (17 regular
or 2 adjunct), 7 were members of the IT staff, 2 were members of the research staff, one was an educational program manager, and one was a student.
Participant Experience
Level No. %
I had never explored using CI in research or teaching
12 40
I had explored using CI in teaching or research but hadn’t implemented it yet
5 16.7
I had used some CI in teaching or research but am a relative novice
7 23.3
I consider myself fairly experienced at using CI in teaching or research
5 16.7
I am an expert at using CI in teaching or research
1 3.3
Thirty of 33 total MSI-CI2 participants completed the overall survey, for a response rate of 90.9%
Potential CI related interests NotInterested(1 pt)
SomewhatInterested(2 pts)
Veryinterested(3 pts)
Greatesinterest(4 pts)
AVG
Internships for MSI faculty or students at places with major CI activities
7% (2) 17% (5) 13% (4) 63% (19) 3.33
Involving faculty and research teams in CI 3% (1) 17% (5) 30% (9) 50% (15) 3.27
Understanding how to access CI resources like TeraGrid
0% (0) 23% (7) 27% (8) 50% (15) 3.27
Training and planning experiences like this meeting 3% (1) 13% (4) 37% (11) 47% (14) 3.27
Pursuing funding for better CI infrastructure (including clusters) at your MSI
13% (4) 7% (2) 23% (7) 57% (17) 3.23
Pursuing funding for faculty release time to getinvolved in CI
7% (2) 17% (5) 27% (8) 50% (15) 3.20
Involving undergraduates in CI 3% (1) 23% (7) 33% (10) 40% (12) 3.10
Curriculum and Education issues for CI 3% (1) 23% (7) 33% (10) 40% (12) 3.10
Institutional and infrastructural issues for CI 7% (2) 17% (5) 50% (15) 27% (8) 2.97
Extended visits of CI research experts to your MSI 13% (4) 17% (5) 33% (10) 37% (11) 2.93
Having CI experts do a site visit at your MSI 10% (3) 20% (6) 40% (12) 30% (9) 2.90
Providing Research Experiences in CI for Undergradutes
13% (4) 20% (6) 33% (10) 33% (10) 2.87
Extended visits of CI experts to your MSI 13% (4) 23% (7) 33% (10) 30% (9) 2.80
Pursuing funding for graduate students in CI areas 23% (7) 20% (6) 27% (8) 30% (9) 2.63
Involving graduate students in CI 23% (7) 23% (7) 20% (6) 33% (10) 2.63
Becoming a provider of TeraGrid 23% (7) 40% (12) 27% (8) 10% (3) 2.23
To what extent was your primary goal met? Average = 3.30
0% 0 1 = Not at all
13.3% 4 2 = Met to a limited extent
43.3% 13 3 = Met to a large extent
43.3% 13 4 = My goal was fully met
How valuable was attending this institute? Average = 3.37
0% 0 1 = Not at all valuable
13.3% 4 2 = Somewhat valuable
36.7% 11 3 = Quite valuable
50% 15 4 = Highly valuable
Answers to Questionnaire
How effective were the combination of sessions you attended in addressing the issues, challenges, and questions that are likely to arise in your and your institution's use of CI? Average = 2.97
0% 0 1 = Not at all effective
20% 6 2 = Somewhat effective
63.3% 19 3 = Quite effective
16.7% 5 4 = Highly effective
Interested in attending future CI trainings and workshops for MSI faculty?
0% 0 No
33.3% 10 Perhaps
66.7% 20 Yes
Organization hard due to diversity in role (Executive, IT czar, Faculty, Student and in discipline interest
MSI Cyberinfrastructure Empowerment Coalition MSI-CIEC
• MSI institution centered with coordinated brokering and support• MSI capabilities are built around CI delivery to MSI’s • Program support capabilities such as portal help enable MSI
Capabilities (Portal not funded)• There are important administrative and outreach capabilities
under “Internal and Operational”• Initial major focus on integrating CI at an MSI with linkage of
multiple programs at a given institution– Modest CI installation at site: local capability and access to International
CI (MSI CI Operations Center)– Institutional activities: executive presentations and campus visits to plan
CI – Funding of faculty release time and students– Linkage of MSI and National CI research projects– Curriculum enhancement– Education and Training of faculty, students and CI support staff
• MSI-CIEC can lead or support/advise projects such as advising TeraGrid RAT on Campus partnerships
MSI-CIEC: MSI Cyberinfrastructure Empowerment
Coalition
MSI-Centered Capabilities Links to 3 MSI areas and the Alliance CI Linkage Capabilities for specific domains such as Biology for Earth Science MSI faculty staff student mentoring and advancement MSI Institutional evaluation, planning, development MSI Physical resources such as clusters and TeraGrid access
Program Support Capabilities Portal, Access Grid, Collaboration tools, Portal content (Support databases) MSI CI Operations Center Research programs and opportunities REU, Fellowships etc. supporting other capabilities including MSI faculty staff student mentoring and advancement Education and Training Specific Programs and Identification of opportunities Social and Behavioral research
Operational and Internal Capabilities• External Relations• Government, Other MSI Projects, Relevant connections such as TeraGrid, NCSA, SDSC, TACC, SCxx• Outreach and Meetings• Evaluation and Internal Research• Administration & Operations
MSI-CIEC: MSI Cyberinfrastructure Empowerment Coalition Projects with Multiple PI's:
These use a selection of capabilities and include cases where MSI-CIEC has a lead or support role
MSI-CI2 is first MSI-CIEC project
MSI-CIEC: MSI Cyberinfrastructure Empowerment Coalition Leadership team
Capability Leaders PIs of Projects