NSF and EnvironmentalCyberinfrastructure

Margaret LeinenEnvironmental Cyberinfrastructure Workshop, NCAR 2002

A brief history of “cyberinfrastructure” at NSF

• 2000:

– Community and NSF concern about the asymmetrical development of computer power and tools to use the power

– CISE funds a number of large scale infrastructure proposals as part of the Information Technology Research priority area

• Late 2000CISE proposes a “cyberinfrastructure”

component to the ITR

Cyberinfrastructure

cycles

networking

data mgt training

software

data manipulation

• Early 2001

– NSF establishes a “Blue Ribbon” panel to provide advice in developing cyberinfrastructure

– Kelvin Droeggemeier a member of panel

– Environmental community discussion of cyberinfrastructure needs

Special challenges of Special challenges of environmental researchenvironmental research

• Global scope• Geospatial reference• Complexity of systems• Disciplinary integration• Volume of data • Need for long-term data collection

and simulations• Value of historical data• Predictive power for decision-

making in uncertainty

Changes in Environmental Changes in Environmental EducationEducation

• New demands for curricular materials

– Connect data on Earth’s physical and biotic components

– Include recent research data and results

• Discovery-based learning

– Hands-on activities– Consideration of social

implications in decision-making exercises

Needs in Environmental Needs in Environmental EducationEducation

• Digital Libraries for data collections and images

• Tools for manipulation of data and discovery activities

• Communications networks for access and collaborations

• Support services for contributors, teachers, and students

Challenges: Synthesis of Needs of Various

Environmental Communities

• Management of distributed observing systems• Standards for data integrity and accuracy• Capacity to archive large data sets• Rapid access to databases and computational

power through high bandwidth networks• Common modeling frameworks• Computing power for modeling, visualization,

and prediction• Long-term maintenance, operations, and data

management• Need for skilled workforce

Other ChallengesOther Challenges

• Challenges that have not been identified because they are beyond the n

– Combining spatial images and digital data– Modeling frameworks that integrate earth,

atmospheric and ocean systems– Modeling frameworks that integrate physical

systems with biological and engineering systems

– Knowledge or decision-support systems that combine geospatial information with demographic, economic and other data for land use and disaster management

– Intellectual property issues– Security and privacy issues

Discipline research

Discipline cyberinfrastructure

Computer and computational cyberinfrastructure

Computer and computational research

Where does cyberinfrastructure stop and

research begin?

Environmental Cyberinfrastructure

Compute cycles

Environmental Cyberinfrastructure

Compute cycles

Networks, software, data manipulation,

data management, training

CISE cyberinfrastructure:

Environmental Cyberinfrastructure

Compute cycles

Networks, software, data manipulation,

data management, training

Cyberinfrastructure for discipline science

Environmental Cyberinfrastructure

Spatial data challenges: e.g.Merging digital imagery with

digital data

Compute cycles

Networks, software, data manipulation,

data management, training

Cyberinfrastructure for discipline science

S. Kazenski, U Texas - Austin

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