Tag Archives: Regional Networks

NSF cyberinfrastructure report aims to awaken potential of ‘sleeping middle’

The final report on the Role of Regional Organizations in Advancing the Computational Infrastructure has been submitted to the National Science Foundation with the goal to developing recommendations to assist regional organizations to leverage their work for the benefit of the research community as well as understand what actions, if any, are needed to achieve a radical shift across a diverse set of organizations to improve coordination of, access to and utilization of the national computational infrastructure.

There are many cyberinfrastructure organizations in the space between campuses and nationally-shared cyberinfrastructure facilities that enable use of advanced cyberinfrastructure in research. According to the contributors of this report (which included staff and several members of The Quilt), now is the time to harness the collective energies of these organizations and focus them on innovating CI infrastructure and expertise while also sharing those solutions on an intra- and inter-regional basis.

“The recommendations provided in this report are aimed at awakening the potential of the ‘sleeping middle’ of regional network/CI organizations to develop and enrich the national CI ecology,” as noted in the summary.

pdf-icon-1Download a copy of the full report.

The Role of Regional Organizations in Improving Access to the National Computational Infrastructure conference was held in Kansas City, Missouri, in October 2015. A total of 36 white papers were submitted in advance, and 39 individuals were in attendance. The majority of the participants were from academic institutions, and many also represented a state, regional or national organization with significant interest in improving access to the national computational infrastructure. Contributions by white paper authors and conference attendees are grouped into key thematic areas as presented in the report in addition to two sets of recommendations – core recommendations and recommendations for actions within specific communities.

The purpose of this project was to gain input from relevant organizations and to develop a set of recommendations to reinvigorate the state of advanced cyberinfrastructure and to lay the groundwork for a vibrant, healthy national computational cyberinfrastructure that brings together all the relevant players and is flexible enough to accommodate new developments. By carefully considering the information and choosing to implement the recommendations from this 34-page report, it may be possible to accomplish broad scale change across the cyberinfrastructure landscape in support of future computational and data-intensive science in the United States and beyond.

This work was funded by National Science Foundation Award No. 1543655 to Kansas State University. Gregory E. Monaco, Ph.D. Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, and the Great Plains Network. This replaces the Draft Report submitted in March 2016.

Regional Networks & Support for Research, OneOklahoma Cyberinfrastructure highlights Quilt Fall Member Meeting

Our 2015 Fall Member Meeting is next week, and we have an extraordinary line-up of speakers and special guests scheduled to participate.

At the invitation of Quilt member LEARN (Lonestar Education and Research Network), The Quilt will be holding its Fall Member Meeting on Sept. 28 through Oct. 1 at the JW Marriott in downtown Austin, Texas. This year’s Fall Member Meeting also coincides with the National Science Foundation Campus Cyberinfrastructure PI Workshop and the ESnet Site Coordinators Committee (ESCC).

This will be one Texas-sized meeting with the best networking minds in the country gathered all in one place for some exciting discussions on how R&E networks are uniquely positioned to meet today’s infrastructure challenges.

Over the last couple of weeks we have previewed some items on the agenda.  Please see previous posts including features on Pacific Research Platform and the Science DMZ and Campus Cyberinfrastructure in Texas.

Today’s post highlights two engaging discussions on Wednesday afternoon.

First, will be a presentation on Regional Networks and Support for Research.  In this discussion we will feature an overview of The Quilt’s 2015 goals and activities in this area, explore The Quilt’s Regional Collaboration Projects Working Group, the Regional Role in National Computation Infrastructure Workshop, and Regional Networks and NSF Big Data Innovation Hub Program. Presenters include Quilt President and CEO Jen Leasure, KINBER President and CEO Wendy Huntoon, and Greg Monaco, Director for Research & Cyberinfrastructure Initiatives for the Great Plains Network.

Immediately following this discussion will be a special presentation on the OneOklahoma Cyberinfrastructure Initiative.

Henry Neeman of the University of Oklahoma will talk about this initiative and how it is designed to deliver improved network reliability, robustness, availability and bandwidth to Oklahoma’s researchers (and probably some fun meteorology aspects as well).  Funded by a National Science Foundation grant, the Oklahoma Optical Initiative benefits the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, OneNet (Oklahoma’s education, research and government network), the University of Tulsa, Langston University, the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation and a variety of other institutions across the state.

The OneOklahoma Cyberinfrastructure Initiative has already reached a total of 97 institutions and organizations: 50 academic and 47 non-academic.

Finally, the first day’s activities will close with our Member Meeting Event with Bat Cruise and Dinner.

Thanks again to LEARN for hosting this year’s meeting.

You can follow the conversation now and during the meeting using #FMM15 or @TweettheQuilt.

We look forward to seeing you Austin!