1. A Year of Cyberinfrastructure at Illinois
Opening Symposium
September 30, 2014
2. Outline
•A Year of Cyberinfrastructure
•A bit of how we got here and why…
•About a CI Plan for the campus
3. A Year of Cyberinfrastructure
•AKA “A Year of Action”
•Inspired by “Year of Data Stewardship”
•Funded by OVCR and OCIO
•http://cyberinfrastructure.illinois.edu/
4. Year of CI Objectives
•Develop a common understanding of which resources are part of CI
•Understand the role of CI in enhancing research and education across all disciplines
–fundamentally, increasing capability and productivity
•Develop a plan for additional campus CI resources, guided by the campus strategic plan, the campus IT strategic plan, and additional faculty input.
–a Cyberinfrastructure Master Plan
5. CI Discussion Triggers
•“A Research Cyberinfrastructure Strategy for the CIC: Advice to the Provosts from the Chief Information Officers”
•Released in May 2010
•Progress report issued in April 2012
6. CI Discussion Triggers
•NSF ACCI task force reports issued in April 2011:
–Campus Bridging
–Cyberlearning and Workforce Development
–Data and Visualization
–Grand Challenges
–High Performance Computing
–Software for Science and Engineering
http://www.nsf.gov/cise/aci/taskforces/
7. CIF21: Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering
Innovation, Discovery
Grand Challenge Communities
Learning & Workforce Development
Campus Bridging, Cybersecurity
Advanced Computational Infrastructure
Data
Scientific Instruments
Software
http://www.nsf.gov/cif21
8. CI Discussions History
•September 23, 2008
–Discussion of a “campus CI assessment”
•AY2010-2011
–Council of CIOs discusses CI Master Plan
•AY2011-2012
–CI Master Planning Group meetings
•Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014
–5 page Campus CI Plan for NSF proposal
9. CI Discussions History
•February 8, 2013
–Campus Research IT Governance creates subcommittee to draft a CI Master Plan
•February 14, 2014
–Campus Research IT Governance discusses CI Master Plan again
10. A Year of CI is Born
•Recognized a few things
–developing a CI Master Plan requires broad engagement across campus
–no commonly accepted definition of CI
–need to raise awareness of role of CI in increasing research capability and productivity
•Many things are happening in this space with only informal coordination
11. Progress on Campus Services
•Illinois Campus Cluster Program (ICCP)
•Blue Waters (Illinois researcher allocations)
•Campus Advanced Research Network Environment (CARNE)
•Data Center Shared Services (DCSS)
•Campus Research Data Service (RDS)
•Scholarly Commons
12. CI Master Plan
•“If you tried to fund electricity on the grant cycle, you'd get pretty fed up with electricity. ... Plea to all funders ... stop thinking that you're going to create infrastructure as a by- product of a more interesting project.”
–Geoffrey Bilder, Director of Strategic Initiatives at CrossRef during NIH ADDS Data Science meeting on Sept. 3, 2014
13. Strategy
•Campus Strategic Plan
•Campus IT Strategic Plan
–AY2014-16 Plan
–Committee Source Documents
–Yearly Priorities
14. Need for a CI Master Plan
•CI co-evolves with research programs
–Scientists encounter a problem, invent a tool to solve it, and add that tool to the ecosystem.
•The tool finds other users
–often in other fields, producing unanticipated changes of direction in research
15. CI Master Plan
•What CI we have is closely entwined with the success of individual researchers.
–we do not have a budget for CI
–most of what we spend on CI comes from research awards
•We have no coherent means of considering the campus CI needs
–even if we had such a wish list, that does not indicate those are the things we would pursue
•What CI is developed and deployed currently is highly dependent on how well our researchers’ proposals are reviewed.
16. Characteristics of Master Plans
•Guidelines: how multiple goals will be balanced
•Constraints: acknowledgement of planning boundaries, e.g.
•Opportunities: things we’d like to do just in case funding can be found
•Processes: project approvals, fund-raising rules, etc.
•Temporality: usually kept up-to-date at all times
17. How Campuses Develop Master Plans
•Description of the physical campus, including boundaries
•Assessment of current facilities against peers, against needs, etc.
–requires active engagement broadly across campus
•Exploration of desired future states
•Development of planning guidelines
18. Year of CI Strategy: Symposia
•Raise awareness of CI in support of research
•Solicit input from the campus community on needs and priorities
–current and anticipated
•Discussion of relevant issues for the campus
–identify the resources and services needed
•We are open to suggestions on topics:
–data infrastructure needs, role of clouds in supporting research, support services, …
19. Year of CI Strategy: Seminars
•Raise awareness of CI in support of research
•Understand how others have addressed these issues
–or struggle with them!
•Understand how our local campus CI fits into the national/international ecosystem
•Approximately bi-monthly during AY 2104- 2015
20. Year of CI Strategy: Surveys, Interviews, Focus Groups
•Deeper discussions on relevant issues
•Engage research community on campus in deeper discussion and identification of needs
•Focused activity during fall 2014
21. Year of CI Strategy: CI Master Plan Development
•Working group to develop document (winter 2014-2015)
–core writing team
–larger representative set of faculty across disciplines to provide input, guidance, comment
•Plan vetting and editing (spring 2015)
–open comment and feedback
•Finalization of first version (May 2015)
–approvals from campus leadership and governance
