Advisory Board Meeting March 2004

Earth System Science

What we do ? Study the Earth system & its feedbacks Computational approach Analyses of field & remote sensing data Numerical modeling Provide space & computational infrastructure to researchers Administrate grants & contracts Bottom line: Make PI’s happy & productive

Issues / Agenda Grant Income –We’re OK... but the decline of NASA is huge! –Need more “central” faculty participants State Support –We took a 7% temporary cut & can’t handle more –Bridge funding does happen Computing –New computer room & air conditioning –Commitment to security & scientific computing Space –Some wins / some losses Relationships with other units –Clustering with Bren, Geography, ???

2002/2003 Status for ICESS Annual awards =>$5,941,538 Overhead produced =>$1,349,642 State budget =>$349,560 A21 (OH return $’s) => $101, funded projects 95 proposals submitted – 61 new awards 84 PI’s involved, 46 staff, 31 GSR & 22 UG

ICESS Awards / Requests

Budget Issues Core + supplemental support ~28% of OH income Last year budget cuts –Last year, state cut 20% on all “research” activities –Campus covered most, but passed a 7% temporary cut to ORU’s and required plans to make the cut permanent This year’s cuts?? –Just rumors (but have heard will be ~ same) –If we take a cut, it will be people We have a very small supply budget ($14.6K) Admin staff is 3.75 FTE (down from 4.5) Compute staff is 2.19 FTE (need to recharge more)

ICESS Agency Trends

The NASA Problem ICESS used to be a “NASA shop” NASA fraction of ICESS support is down –In 99/00, NASA was 71.6% of total award $’s –02/03, NASA is 46.1% (& its dropping) –Fortunately, we’ve picked it up from NSF Issues are few opportunities from NASA & a larger cohort of people looking for $’s

# of NASA ESS Calls for Proposals

NASA - Not A Science Agency? Continue our traditional NASA work EOS-recompete, REASoN, ESSP, etc. BUT think beyond “mission science”… Play to our strengths… analyzing & managing huge datasets interdisciplinary research Develop new PI partnerships for new opportunities (Biocomplexity, IGERT, etc.)

Computational Trends Moore’s law – 2x in CPU speed every 18 months Disk storage is following a similar trend Price is going in the opposite direction –Ten fold reduction in $ per flop for past 5 years Great time for Earth System Scientists –High performance computers are now obtainable –MUCH easier (Linux clusters, community models, etc.) –We need it, ESS data sets are getting huge

Problem with trends… Bigger, faster & cheaper computers means larger, hotter & louder electrical components If AC = 0, T(server_room) -> 120 o F in a few hours & machines fry With Office of Research’s help, we have… –Doubled AC capacity with a redundant unit –Increased size of server room by 50% (to 420 asf) Should be “fine” for next couple years

Computational Initiatives Bi-weekly meetings (compute staff / MSO / director) –Little progress since NASA Center of Excellence funding Security -> still job #1 –Firewall / host intrusion detection (in progress) –Stricter policies of what gets on system Next generation scientific computing –Linux on windows boxes (from proprietary UNIX systems) –Linux cluster installation (in progress)

Space Progress is directly tied to our partner units (Geography, MSI, Bren, etc.) Marine Science Research Building (MSRB) –Will open up ~5 offices at ICESS –Provides lab space for some faculty / researchers Future –Lab space is still an issue for non-marine researchers –ADEPT / Alexandria ?? –Next push when Geography faculty vacate ICESS (2008?)

Relationships with Other Units Office of Research has asked all ORU’s to consider clustering with other units for budgetary reasons –Long standing relationship with Bren (via computing) –Considering Crustal & Geography Need to replace “lost” ICESS faculty members –Results in a few researchers bringing in most of the $’s –Need to diversify our “income portfolio”

ICESS Issues Grant Income –We’re OK... but the decline of NASA is huge! –Need more “central” faculty participants State Support –We took a 7% temporary cut & can’t handle more –Bridge funding does happen Computing –New computer room & air conditioning –Commitment to security & scientific computing Space –Some wins / some losses Relationships with other units –Clustering with Bren, Geography, ???