NSF Expeditions in Computing Managing Large, Distributed Projects: Best Practices and Challenges Vipin Kumar University of Minnesota

Oct 16, 2012 Slide 2 Challenges in Interdisciplinary Collaborations Differences in vocabulary (aka. Language Barrier) Ask a computer scientist, a statistician, and a climate scientist what a “model” is and you will get three very different answers Try again with “prediction” or with “system” and so on Differences in how research is conducted (aka. Culture Clash) Computer science operates on a deadline-driven publication cycle, with frequent peer-reviewed conference papers Climate science operates on a task-oriented publication cycle, where journal papers are generally reserved for major discoveries Differences in tools and methods Computer scientists are familiar with C/C++, Python, and Matlab and generally store datasets in plain-text files Climate scientists are familiar with GrADS, Panoply, NCO, R, Matlab, and generally store datesets in netCDF, HDF, GRIB files There is a significant learning curve In some aspects we have reached here But in others we are still down here

Oct 16, 2012 Slide 3 Management and Collaboration - Best Practices Interdisciplinary Learning & Research Environment Students co-advised by advisors of multiple disciplines Students across disciplines share lab space and interact frequently Topic-specific reading groups reinforce important concepts Bi-Weekly Virtual Meetings (WebEx) Conference call + shared desktop environment High-level project management Technical presentations Annual Workshop Bringing together computer scientists, statisticians, climate scientists, etc. Promoting interaction and feedback between the different disciplines

Oct 16, 2012 Slide 4 Evidence and impact of collaboration Research is being published in both computer science and climate science venues Most of our papers contain co-authors from various institutions and disciplines Computer science team members are frequently invited to speak at various climate science venues New connections between researchers are being established

Oct 16, 2012 Slide 5 Is the whole greater than the sum of its parts? Different possible interpretations of “Parts” and “Whole” A.Parts = Disciplines of climate science, computer science, etc.; Whole = Inter-disciplinary field of climate informatics B.Parts = Individual researchers; Whole = Multi-author papers (and underlying research ideas) C.Parts = Individual institutions; Whole = Society and its awareness of climate change impacts