FRIDAY NOVEMBER 7, 2008

National Selected Show Case Projects (with strong student research component)Cyberinfrastructure, Remote Sensing, Collaboration and the PolarGrid

Dr. Linda B. Hayden, Director Center of Excellence in Remote Sensing Education and Research (CERSER)

Elizabeth City State University

What is CReSIS?What is CI-Team @ ECSU?

What is PolarGrid ?

• National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center established in 2005

• Mission – – Develop new technologies and computer models to

measure and predict the response of sea level change to the mass balance of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica

– Provide students and faculty with opportunities to pursue research in a variety of disciplines

– Collaborate with scientists and engineers in the US and abroad

– Make meaningful contributions to the ongoing, urgent work of addressing the impact of climate change

CReSIS is comprised of six partner universities, with the headquarters located at the lead institution, the Univ. of Kansas.

Elizabeth City State UniversityHaskell Indian Nations UniversityThe Ohio State UniversityThe Pennsylvania State UniversityUniversity of Maine

In addition to this core group, CReSIS collaborates with several international institutions and industry partners.

ECSU’s CERSER lab contributes to the: •Satellite Measurements Research Team •Data Products & Modeling Research Team •Cyberinfrastructure support for field operations

• The vision and goals of the National Science Foundation CI-Team at ECSU project, “Cyberinfrastructure for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets,” are based on the fact that “educational settings, audiences, and goals are too important to be adequately addressed as afterthoughts or add-ons to Cyberinfrastructure projects and, instead, must be treated as high priorities integrated in a project’s overall design”.

• The NSF CI-Team at ECSU project through the ADMI

institutions aggressively engages computer science and engineering students from eleven minority universities in the Grid, remote sensing, and CReSIS training, seminars, workshops and classes.

In 2007, twenty-two students from ADMI institutionsreceived CI-TEAM scholarships.

In 2008, seventeen students from ADMI institutions received CI-TEAM scholarships.

Through the CI-TEAM project, underrepresented students from minority serving institutions participate in an 8-week research training program on the campus of ECSU.

Polar Grid

The Polar Grid project is the designing and building of the hardware and software, which supports data analysis and simulations for Polar Science.

Polar Grid

Polar Grid is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Major Research Instrument (MRI) funded partnership of Indiana University and Elizabeth City State University.

Key Areas

The Polar Gird implementation and development focuses on the following key areas:•Field data collection system to be taken with the Polar Science researchers as they collect data.•A base camp 64-core cluster, allowing near real-time analysis of radar data by the polar field teams.•An educational videoconferencing Grid to support educational activities.

Key Areas

continued…• A large 17 Teraflops cluster to be integrated with the NSF-

funded TeraGrid, to serve the polar research community in final processing of data and supporting simulations. This is split between IU and ECSU to support research and education training respectively.• The implementation of new improvements to the speed and

capabilities of ice sheet models, and implementation of web portals to make the data, data products, and resources easily accessible to the polar research community.• Is seen to add value to the business

Polar Grid Lab

Mac OS X Public IP accessible through ECSU firewall

Ubuntu Linux

Windows XP

Additional SoftwareDesktop PublishingUbuntu LinuxWord ProcessingWeb DesignProgrammingMathematical Applications Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Enhanced Virtual Organization Capabilities

Global Warming Nobel Peace Prize WinnerDr. Mohan Munasinghe Distinguished Lecture

.

Fifteen students from ADMI institutions participated. The event was webcast to CReSIS and ADMI partners

Polar Grid July 2008 Field Season in Ilulissat, Greenland. The 2008 Ilulissat, Greenland Field Team included Dr. Eric Akers,

ECSU professor, and Mr. Je’aime Powell, ECSU graduate student. Participating in broadcasts from Greenland were students from:

Mississippi Valley State Univ Winston-Salem State Univ Spelman College

Elizabeth City State UnivNorth Carolina A&T UnivSt. Augustine’s College.

Distinguished Lecture Series Dr. Richard Moore and Dr. Derrick Lampkin.

The lectures, co-sponsored by the NSF CI-TEAM project were webcast to all CReSIS and ADMI Partners.

ECSU Research StudentsAntarctica

Polar Grid July 2008 Field Season

Iiulissat, Greenland

Installation and Implementation of a LAMPDocumentation Server

• Andrea Grumbles - ECSU• Tyrone Whitehurst - NSU• Amanda Bland - MVSU• Mentor: Mr. Je’aime Powell

• The 2007 GRID Team project involved documenting the processes taken in creating an open-source documentation server. The server used the Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP (LAMP) components along with a MediaWiki interface to document future TeraGRID projects.

Use of Microsoft Visual Studio Express Edition and DirectX to Simulate Movements of a Colony of Penguins to be tagged for

a Science Mission

• Sandy Harrison - WSSU Terrance Mason -MVSU• Spencer Weeks-Jamieson Jasmin Rivers - ECSU• Mentors: Dr. Arvin Agah / Mr. Tushar Majithia• The 2007 Artica Team combined education and fun into a game in

order to teach the players about polar research. The objective of this URE Summer project is to enhance an existing video game to educate young students on the Polar Regions including challenges that scientists face.

Designing and Developing a Portal for the Polar Grid HighPerformance Computing System at Elizabeth City State

University

• Patrina Bly – Elizabeth City State University• Justin Deloatch - Mississippi Valley State University• Camden Hearn - Mississippi Valley State University• Jonathan Henderson - Mississippi Valley State University• Using Adobe Dreamweaver as the development tool

individual porlets and RSS feeds were created using iGoogle as a portal. GeoRSS namespaces were used to generate points into Google maps.

http://nia.ecsu.edu/ur/0708/teams/pg/new/index.htm

Design of polices that guide the usage of the polycom system to allow effective use. The policies focused on four core areas. The areas were, hosting a virtual conference, connecting to a conference, connecting ADMI partner institutions using PVX kits, and working with faculty to create a procedure to request teleconferences.

http://nia.ecsu.edu/ur/0708/teams/pgcsp/

Construction of a Condor pool composed of 18 nodes running on windows NT platform

An eighteen node computing pool was constructed and tested within Dixon Hall's second floor lab using Condor. This pool was comprised of seventeen desk-tops running on a Windows NT platform, with the pool's mater housed in Lane hall acting as a Linux based server.

Challenges and Opportunities

• New partnerships with other CI-TEAM projects like MSI CI2

• New partnership with non-minority universities including Indiana University and The University of Kansas.

• Campus Bandwidth issues• Campus building allocations• Expanding faculty expertise • Joint publications and presentations for faculty and students.• Expanded opportunities for faculty and student research.

CI-Days at ECSU (Jan. 3-4, 2008) has helped the campus to face the challenges and to capitalize on the opportunities. CI-Days at ECSU (Jan. 3-4, 2008) has helped the campus to face the challenges and to capitalize on the opportunities.