“The same challenge to appropriately

staff gateway development within a

research project (high commercial

demand for skills) means there is an

opportunity to partner with a range of

institutions and provide a consistent

professional development program.”

— Ian Stokes-Rees, Continuum Analytics

Science Gateways Community Institute

The Incubator enables clients to learn and

benefit from the previous experience of others.

• We show how to implement the technical

details.

• We cover all aspects of the gateway

lifecycle—from planning and design through

end-of-life or sustainability.

• We offer a variety of services to fill in the

specialized skill sets that may be missing

from a development team. This area is led by Michael Zentner, Purdue

University.

The Extended Developer Support collaborates

with clients to provide hands-on,

individualized, embedded support:

• Creating new gateways

• Expanding the capabilities of existing

gateways

Our goals are to

• Help start new gateways.

• Help existing gateways adapt to new

resources, technologies & users.

• Provide “burst” support for smaller issues.

• Understand community needs that feed

back into and guide other SGCI areas.

This area is led by Marlon E. Pierce with

support from Suresh Marru, both of Indiana

University.

The Scientific Software Collaborative helps

with building gateways through two guiding

principles:

1. Gateways should not be built as a series of

one-off efforts.

2. A single software solution will not fit all

problems.

We offer a collection of reusable components

in order to help gateway builders

• Choose technologies.

• Integrate new features and capabilities.

The SGCI needs to be a vibrant gathering

place—face-to-face and virtual—for learning,

sharing, and connecting.

Our community includes science and

engineering web developers, across multiple

disciplines, federal agencies, and nations.

To support this community, we plan to

• Offer an annual conference, diverse website

resources, and professional development to

encourage conversation across disciplinary

and organizational boundaries.

• Help community members learn how SGCI

services might benefit them.

Project Management

Our team brings together seven universities,

each focusing on a different facet of the

Institute. The SGCI is led by Nancy Wilkins-

Diehr, San Diego Supercomputer Center,

University of California, San Diego.

science gateways community institute /ˈsī əns ˈgāt-ˌwāz kə-ˈmyü-nə-tē ˈin(t)-stə-ˌtüt/ n.: abbrev. SGCI

1. an online and physical resource for community building and supporting

science gateways; specifically: one sharing expertise, such as experiences,

technologies, and practices

2. an organization enabling gateway creators to leverage efforts across projects

and allowing scientists to focus on science

science gateway /sī′ əns gāt′ wā′/ n.

1. an online community space for science and engineering research and

education

2. a Web-based resource for accessing data, software, computing services, and

equipment specific to the needs of a science or engineering discipline

Incubator: Expertise for the gateway lifecycle

“This is a powerful concept that is quite

different from the way most research

projects think about shared services. It is

a model used effectively by many non-

profits in the research and higher-

education field.”

— Kate Wittenberg, ITHAKA

Technology Planning

• Choosing technologies

• Cybersecurity

• Software engineering

• Interfaces to compute

and data

• Business model development

• Financial planning

• Project management

• Software licensing

• Staff and sustainability

planning

Business Planning

Experts You Could Not Otherwise Afford

Security

• Center for Trustworthy Scientific

Cyberinfrastructure

Sustainability

• Nancy Maron, creator of the ITHAKA S+R

course on Sustaining Digital Resources

Evaluation & Impact Measurement

• Ann Zimmerman Consulting

Internal Resource Development

• Notre Dame’s campus gateway task force

Client Interaction Planning

• Usability studies

• Web/visual/graphic design

• Impact measurement

• Community engagement

• Support for education

Common Experiences

• Training sessions

• Group interactions

Continuing Engagement

• Customized structure, content,

goals

• Mentoring

• Pay It Forward

A Framework for Decision Making

Network / Cohort Formation

An Ongoing Dispassionate Ear

• Coordinating with other areas of SGCI and

partners to offer internships.

• Identifying gateways that are relevant to

domain-based courses.

This area is led by Linda B. Hayden, Elizabeth

City State University.

Extended Developer Support: Dedicated SGCI

staff work directly with clients to build and enhance gateways

Focus

• Front-end development

• Gateways using all types of CI

• Both sides give 2-month to 1-year

commitment

• Well-defined engagements with

work plans

• Technology agnostic

Benefits

• Reinforce Incubator lessons

• Develop deep understanding of community needs

that feed into other Institute areas

• Capture and document support efforts for scalability

• Hands-on opportunities for student participants

Scientific Software Collaborative: Leveraging existing investments in gateway technologies

End-to-End Solutions

• Serve a diverse set of scientific

domains

• Out-of-the-box gateway solution

that can be customized

• Based on Docker – executable

images that are the skeleton for

a secure and functioning

gateway

• Portable and reproducible

• Community-contributed • API integration

• Variety of services

• Information

• Security

• Execution

• Data

• Event

• Accounting

• Hosting opportunity

“Use-what-you-

need”

Gateway Discovery

• Open registry

• Promotes use of existing

science gateways

• Community-contributed

• Admin approval

• Automated cleanup

Software Integration &

Community Contribution

• Docking mechanisms for

community-contributed

software, including NSF SI2

• Incorporate community

standards

Engage Other Areas of

Institute

• Support projects leverage

existing components

• Selection of components

evolves as a result of

gateway engagements

• Community outreach

Scientific Software

Collaborative for

Science Gateways

• Focus their efforts on the novel and

challenging features specific to their

projects and user communities.

• Participate at any level of experience,

including

• Researchers looking for an end-to-end

solution.

• Experienced developers looking to

contribute software components.

This area is led by Maytal Dahan, Texas

Advanced Computing Center, University of

Texas, Austin.

Community Engagement and Exchange: Key to a successful institute

Workforce Development aims to

• Increase the pipeline of young developers.

• Tap the unrealized potential of students

from underrepresented groups.

To do this, we are using several strategies:

1. Fellowships and internships for students

committed to learning gateway

technologies

2. Connections with STEM professors

integrating gateways into their courses

3. Efforts to gain acceptance for job titles and

career tracks in gateway development

Our implementation includes

• Establishing a center for training and

education at Elizabeth City State University.

• Developing publicly accessible, online

training and curricula.

Workforce Development: Keep the best and the brightest in the sciences Website Activities

• Discussion forums & social

media

• Gateway showcase with case

studies

• Symposium series

• News: media coverage, related

happenings, academic

publications, job openings,

events calendar

• Curated blog with guest authors

• Professional development:

synchronous and asynchronous

training

• Capture client/user feedback on

web and through other areas

• Tutorials and workshops

• Paper presentations

• Invited keynotes and panels

• Interactive elements: Open Space,

poster session

• Travel support for students and

campus IT staff

Builds on 10 years of experience

with GCE and IWSG series

Annual Conference

Campus Gateway Groups • Task force builds campus-based expertise

• Channel for scaling Institute services

Outreach to Complementary

NSF Initiatives

• NSF SI2 projects

• Large NSF projects

• Science and Technology Centers

• Engineering Research Centers

• Keep our services relevant, useful, and

effective for the community by soliciting

members’ feedback and input.

We also want to find synergies with other

organizations and partners:

• Campus-based, gateway-developer groups

• Independently funded, complementary NSF

initiatives

This area is led by Katherine A. Lawrence,

University of Michigan, with support from

Sandra Gesing, Notre Dame University.

We also have a steering committee of

representatives of key scientific communities

and experts, plus we have several

organizational partners and external

consultants as resources.

Visit sciencegateways.org

or contact us at

info@sciencegateways.org

to learn more

and connect

with us!

Providing Financial Support

• Enabling students learning gateway skills

Integrating Gateways into Course Content

• Providing broader access to high-end resources

Promoting Gateway-

Related Career Paths

• Campus opportunities

• Job boards

Partners

National Organization for the

Professional Advancement of

Black Chemists and Chemical

Engineers (NOBCChE)

Association of Computer/

Information Sciences and

Engineering Departments at

Minority Institutions (ADMI)

Google Summer of Code (GSoC)

Establishing Center for Training

and Education at ECSU

• Vigorous schedule of on-site and virtual training

• Development of training and course curricula about science gateways technologies

SGCI Areas

Focal

Areas • Student-related conference programs

Internship Experiences