UCAR Office of UCAR Office of ProgramsPrograms

Status ReportStatus ReportURC Meeting April 2007URC Meeting April 2007

Jack FellowsJack FellowsVice President of Corporate Affairs andVice President of Corporate Affairs and

Director of UOPDirector of UOP

UOP Strategic Plan

• First integrated strategic plan in UOP’s history.

• Approved by the Board in 2006.

• Includes core community activities and “stretch” goals.

• WWW.ucar.uop.edu

Community InvestmentsCriteria:• Support strategic plan “stretch” goals• Focus on UOP, NCAR, and Community collaborations • Unexpected Opportunities• Leadership Growth Opportunities

Examples (~$25K):• MeteoForum• On-line textbooks• Tools for creating interactive case studies• GPS Applications – tropical boundary layer project• Novel education and technology ideas and services.• GOES-10 Data Access

UOP Programs

• COSMIC. Launched six satellite constellation in April 2006. Data flowing to community. Exciting results.

• JOSS. Good shape.

• GLOBE. New direction and staff transitions. 4-year program review in May.

• NSDL Core Integration. Good shape. New cooperative agreement in the Fall.

• DLESE Program Center. NSF GEO funding terminated. Finding a host for the library.

COMET Spanish MetEdCOMET Spanish MetEd

New Mandatory New Mandatory RegistrationRegistration

• COMET’s sponsors support freely available online training and asked for better user statistics

• Mandatory registration began 29 Jan 2007

• Early users statistics:– 14,000 registered. +8K new users– Registered users in over 186 countries– Registered users in ~274 different

universities/colleges

NEW Basic Hydrology DL NEW Basic Hydrology DL CourseCourse

Consists of:• An

orientation• 7 core topic

lessons• 3 related

lessons• Core course

requires 10-12 hrs to complete

Unidata Metrics and Unidata Metrics and AssessmentAssessment

• Unidata/NSF sought answers to:

– Has Unidata been a successful investment?

– Has it transformed the way the community conducts its teaching and research?

• Nelson Consulting hired to conduct an independent study:

– community survey and focus groups.

– evaluation of software development process.

– interviews of long-time Unidata associates and case-studies

Report ConclusionsReport Conclusions

• The Unidata program is one of the most important things UCAR has done over the years– The Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of

Hydrologic Science (CUAHSI) has been working on providing hydrologists with better access to hydrology data. “Most hydrologists would agree that the ultimate goal is to have an equivalent of Unidata for hydrology.”

• The “community process” is the most important factor in Unidata’s success (i.e., community engagement, governance, feedback, partnership and support).

• Unidata has transformed education and research in the geosciences and the program goals are aligned with NSF’s goals

Unidata Strategic PlanUnidata Strategic Plan

• Unidata is revising its strategic plan. The last plan was written in 2001-02.

• The plan will be completed this summer and will form the basis of the next 5-year core funding proposal to NSF.

• Community broadening: GIS, outside the U.S., and other GEO disciplines like hydrology, oceanography.

• More tools that will be platform independent (i.e., non-Unix and running on Windows and Mac OS) -- enabling smaller colleges to participate in Unidata.

Focus Areas for Goals

Community Data Services Tools Communication and

Support Leadership on

Cyberinfrastructure Diversity

Draft Mission & Vision Statements & Draft Mission & Vision Statements & GoalsGoals

Mission: To provide a broad array of data services, tools, and cyberinfrastructure leadership to enable the advancement of Earth system science education, research, and outreach.

Vision: Unidata is a premier provider of high-quality, well-integrated and end-to-end data services that empower the geosciences community to advance research, education and outreach, and solve complex environmental problems facing science and society.

Visiting Scientist Visiting Scientist ProgramsPrograms

• First of a three-year NASA-sponsored Heliophysics Summer School hosted by the UOP Visiting Scientist Programs in Boulder, CO, July 30 through August 7, 2007.

• 40 students will be selected each year through a competitive process (including senior undergraduate students & graduate students with strong background in physics, and beginning postdocs in the field of heliophysics)

• Application deadline: 15 May 2007