Lessons from the Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI) Cyberinfrastructure (CI) Institute [MSI-CI 2 ] SACNAS October Geoffrey Fox The Demographic Revolution Providing 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 (Millie Freeman): Chief of programs at the National Association for Equity in Higher Education NAFEO –Karl Barnes also helps a lot with 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. PI MSI-CI2 Others such as Scott Lathrop from TeraGrid have been essential!

Sources of Lessons and Backdrop Evaluation of major meetings performed by Julie Foertsch Interaction with community during operation of MSI- CI 2 Note MSI-CI 2 is one year proposal with one year No Cost extension; PI Fox as visitor to Alliance MSI-CI 2 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.

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 Activities Planning and Education (train the trainer) meetings at SC05 and Global Grid Forum (not so successful) and January 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-CI 2 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-CI 2 Lessons II Can support application-specific projects such as “CI for ice- sheet remote sensing” (CReSIS) where MSI Elizabeth City State University ECSU leads CI-enablement –PI Linda Hayden with co-PI’s including Fox –This is part of CReSIS a Science and Technology Center led by Kansas University –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

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 –Note ECSU had all local hardware removed from CI-Team proposal and asked to build a Science Gateway to TeraGrid –However need some local hardware for education and development 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

National Cyberinfrastructure We need to work with all the National Cyberinfrastructure and not just parts –Open Science Grid as well as TeraGrid in NSF –NASA DoE NIH as well as NSF activities –Amazon S3 and Elastic Computing Cloud as well as Government and academic facilities Empowerment should focus on this broad National Cyberinfrastructure –Broad coverage of Support (National Cyberinfrastructure Operations Center), Training, Brokering and Access

Example: Setting up a Polar CI/Grid CI-Team project with HBCU ECSU in North Carolina and Kansas University will design and set up a Polar Grid The North and South poles are melting with potential huge environmental impact –We have changed the 100,000 year Glacier cycle into a ~50 year cycle; the field has increased dramatically in importance and interest Polar Grid is a network of computers, sensors (on robots and satellites), data and people aimed at understanding science of ice-sheets and impact of global warming We are planning Polar Grid relevant CI Education Infrastructure and initial projects with Undergraduate students (ECSU) and Graduate students –Polar weather stations as Grid resources –Use distance education to cover all CReSIS sites

CReSIS PolarGrid Important CReSIS-specific Cyberinfrastructure components include –Managed data from sensors and satellites –Data analysis such as SAR processing – possibly with parallel algorithms –Electromagnetic simulations (currently commercial codes) to design instrument antennas –3D simulations of ice-sheets (glaciers) with non-uniform meshes –GIS Geographical Information Systems Also need capabilities present in many Grids –Portal i.e. Science Gateway –Submitting multiple sequential or parallel jobs

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 LevelNo.% I had never explored using CI in research or teaching 1240 I had explored using CI in teaching or research but hadn’t implemented it yet I had used some CI in teaching or research but am a relative novice I consider myself fairly experienced at using CI in teaching or research I am an expert at using CI in teaching or research 13.3 Thirty of 33 total MSI-CI 2 participants completed the overall survey, for a response rate of 90.9%

Potential CI related interests Not Interested (1 pt) Somewhat Interested (2 pts) Very interested (3 pts) Greates interest (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 get involved 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) 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) 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 = % 01 = Not at all 13.3% 42 = Met to a limited extent 43.3% 133 = Met to a large extent 43.3% 134 = My goal was fully met How valuable was attending this institute? Average = % 01 = Not at allvaluable 13.3% 42 = Somewhat valuable 36.7% 113 = Quite valuable 50% 154 = 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 = % 01 = Not at alleffective 20% 62 = Somewhat effective 63.3% 193 = Quite effective 16.7% 54 = Highly effective Interested in attending future CI trainings and workshops for MSI faculty? 0% 0No 33.3% 10Perhaps 66.7% 20Yes Organization hard due to diversity in role (Executive, IT czar, Faculty, Student and in discipline interest

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-CI 2 is first MSI-CIEC project MSI-CIEC: MSI Cyberinfrastructure Empowerment Coalition Leadership team  Capability Leaders  PIs of Projects

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 funded via MSI-CI2) 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 –Funding 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 on Campus partnerships