Diane Baxter

Welcome to the San Diego Welcome to the San Diego Supercomputer CenterSupercomputer Center

Welcome to the San Diego Welcome to the San Diego Supercomputer CenterSupercomputer Center

Dr. Diane BaxterEducation Director

San Diego Supercomputer Center

Thanks to Fran Berman, Jeff Sale, and Krishna Madhavan, for slides and inspiration

Diane Baxter

SDSC Education Mission

To create a diverse, innovative,

ethical, and thoughtful next

generation of cyberinfrastructure-

fluent scientists, engineers,

mathematicians, and research

professionals.

Diane Baxter

Computing – in the beginning . . . Popular Mechanics, 1954

Electric Counting Machine, 1951

Diane Baxter

Today computing is about more than computers

Cyberinfrastructure is the term used to

include the hardware, software, and

services that provide an “end-to-end”

information technology resource.

network

data

computer

storage

fieldinstrument

network

computer

data

network

computerviz

computer

sensorsfield

data

wireless

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Cyberinfrastructure is a lifestyle

Communication

EntertainmentShopping

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Our students are IT “natives”

• Assume the web

• Assume anytime, anywhere, instant communication

• Assume that everything is available and (virtually) free

• Assume that one can adapt to things in real time (RPG)

• Assume that none of the resources must actually be where you are (the Internet)

Diane Baxter

Faculty are both IT “immigrants” and educational pioneers

• Most faculty took courses in which textbooks were expected to provide course content.

• Teachers’ IT skills often lag behind their students’.

• Standardized tests that are supposed to measure student preparation continue to focus more on content than on learning process skills or technology use.

• But. . . students’ understanding of IT is highly variable; teachers can not assume a commons starting point and thus they must assume there will be IT skill gaps.

• The rate of change in science and technology course content is faster than ever before, demanding that teachers actively learn new content as they teach. (That means more preparation time per course hour.)

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Science has also changed

Formerly, scientists’ primary tools were direct observation and measurement.

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Today : Science is a Team Sport

Astronomy

Physics

Life Sciences

Modeling and Simulation

Data Managementand Mining

GAMESS

Geosciences

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Scientists share ideas, data and resources using vast grids . . .

SDSC

PRAGMA: Pacific Rim GridMiddleware Consortium TeraGrid: National

Research Resource Grid

GEON: GeosciencesGrid

BIRN: Biomedical Informatics Grid

Open Science Grid: Physics-driven Grid

infrastructureNEES: Earthquake

Engineering Grid

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Major Major Earthquakes on Earthquakes on

the San the San Andreas Fault, Andreas Fault, 1680-present1680-present

19061906M 7.8M 7.8

18571857M 7.8M 7.8 16801680

M 7.7M 7.7

How dangerous is How dangerous is the San Andreas the San Andreas

Fault?Fault?

• Geoscience researchers can now use massive amount of geological, historical, and environmental data to simulate natural disasters such as earthquakes.

• Focus: Understanding big earthquakes and their impacts.

• Simulations combine large-scale data collections, high-resolution models, and big supercomputer runs

• Simulation results provide new scientific information enabling better

• Estimation of seismic risk

• Emergency preparation, response and planning

• Design of next generation of earthquake-resistant structures

• Results provide immense societal benefits which can help in saving many lives and billions in economic losses

to do things they couldn’t do alone . . .

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Sharing data across and among disciplines creates new perspectives.

DisciplinaryDisciplinaryDatabasesDatabasesUsersUsers

Portals, Domain Portals, Domain Specific APIsSpecific APIs

provide accessprovide accessto datato data

MiddlewareMiddlewarefederates datafederates data

across disciplinaryacross disciplinaryvocabulariesvocabularies

OrganismsOrganisms

OrgansOrgans

CellsCells

AtomsAtoms

BiopolymersBiopolymers

OrganellesOrganelles

Cell BiologyCell Biology

AnatomyAnatomy

PhysiologyPhysiology

ProteomicsProteomics

Medicinal ChemistryMedicinal Chemistry

GenomicsGenomics

Life Sciences

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What can SDSC Education programs offer?

Professional development opportunities for faculty (classes, workshops, tutorials)

Standards-based, “data-flavored” curricula

Project-based and hands-on learning opportunities for high school through graduate students

Free, web-based resources for educators at all levels

Web-based resources and shared communication space to support implementation and help build communities of practice

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SDSC Education’s ApproachHighlight data’s power and intrigue

Feature computational approaches to real-world issues

Link pre-college curricula to standards and to research data

Seek data and computational links for expanding fields

Scaffold all programs with web-based resources, rapid response to questions, and recognition of student and educator successes.

Involve educators in planning and use participant feedback to adapt programs to changing needs and audiences

Partner with community colleges and minority-serving institutions to ensure next-generation workforce diversity.

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Focus on critical learning skills . . .

• Understanding Data

• Teamwork

• Problem-solving techniques

• Using Community Technologies

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Understanding Data - SDSC Discover Data Educators’ Portal

http://education.sdsc.edu/discoverdata/

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Teamwork

• Student Teams:• Project-based Learning (EPICS, TIES)• Share Data (e.g. environmental monitoring)• Team internships with SDSC staff

• Educator Teams share:• New Curricula and Educational Resources• Assessment Approaches and Outcomes• Success Stories and Lessons Learned

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Problem-Solving . . .

• Technology in education (StudentTech)

• Technology for communities (TIES, with Jacobs School of Engineering)

• New technologies: HPC and grid computing challenges (TeraGrid and SC Student Contests)

• Computational challenges in research (Student SAC Program, TeraGrid Science Gateways, CI-HASS)

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Community Building

• Pathways to Cyberinfrastructure – National Supercomputing Education Program – SCXY

• TeraGrid Education, Outreach, and Training• SDSC TeacherTECH

• http://education.sdsc.edu/teachertech

• HPC Summer Institutes• CI team internships that build domain-based

graduate student communities (2007)• Communication Technologies (CI-Channel)

• http://www.cichannel.org

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When are we successful?

• When students use CI to explore and understand data as readily as they drive their cars.

• Use integrated and specialized CI tools – without needing to build their own.

• Expect to know how CI will work each time – without surprises.

• Seek and find instruction that’s easily available and user-friendly

• Know how to find someone to fix it when it breaks

• Because it’s about where you’re going, not how your car works

Diane Baxter

Thank You and Welcome to SDSC

www.education.sdsc.edu