The Cyberinfrastructure The Cyberinfrastructure Strategic Plan Strategic Plan

for the for the

State ofState ofArkansasArkansas

Amy Apon, Ph.D., DirectorArkansas High Performance

Computing CenterProfessor, CSCE

University of Arkansas

Fayetteville

Magnolia

RussellvilleFort Smith

Arkadelphia

Conway

Monticello

Pine Bluff

Jonesboro

Little Rock

A talk in four partsA talk in four parts

Three Steps in the Planning Process

Arkansas Cyberinfrastructure Strategic Plan

The Cyberinfrastructure Task Force

Planners, Participants, and Sources of Help

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Three Steps in the Planning ProcessStep 1: Engage an External Advisory

CommitteeExternal input is critical to the planning process“A prophet is without honor in his own country.”

Step 1.1 Get the money! – The Arkansas EAC was funded in

part through a supplement from the NSF– Other funds contributed by major participants,

academic (UAF, UALR) and state (Arkansas Science and Technology Authority)

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Step 1: External Advisory Committee

Step 1.2 Recruit an Internal Steering Committee

This should be about two dozen leaders from within the state – we had about 30• Higher education leadership• Industry partners• Key state/public sector participants

Don’t make it too small.

Get over the state politics.4

Step 1: External Advisory Committee

Step 1.3 Recruit Key External Leadership– Leaders from our region and peer

institutions– And also leaders from outside the region– Highly regarded nationally and within the

region

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Arkansas EAC members David KeyesSara GravesStan AhaltThomas SterlingHenry Neeman

Step 1: External Advisory Committee

Step 1.4 EAC Starts with a Charter

An external review is sought of the status of advanced computing capabilities in the state of Arkansas, and also the specific role and contributions of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. This is a first look at the infrastructure, both organizational infrastructure and cyberinfrastructure, for advanced computing at these institutions. The review should provide a snapshot of the current status and expert insight into strategic future activities.

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Step 1: External Advisory Committee

Step 1.5 EAC visits over a 3-5 day period• E.g., Sun dinner, Mon/Tue meetings, Wed write and

wrap up• Involving leadership at major research institutions

– Chancellors, Chief Research officers, Deans, faculty, IT staff

• Involving key industrial partners– Over a dozen companies involved

• Involving key state participants– Governor’s Technology Advisor, DIS, ASTA, DF&A

• Could have involved undergraduate serving institutions

Plan the visit 4 to 6 months in advance.7

Step 1: External Advisory Committee

The External Advisory Committee helps you make the case for Return on Investment

• Cyberinfrastructure confers a sustained competitive advantage• A base for economic development• Long term expected ROI is a factor of 5 to 10

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funding: $7,781,000

FY06: 95 of Top NSF-funded Universities with CI 98 of Top NSF-funded Universities without CI

With Cyberinfrastructure Without Cyberinfrastructure

Step 1: External Advisory Committee

Step 1.6 EAC Produces a Final Report– Presented to Governor Beebe the week after

it was delivered– Presented to the Arkansas Broadband

Advisory Council– Presented to the Joint Legislative Committee

on Science and Technology– Presented to key leadership at the

Universities and across the state

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Step 2: Seed State Funding

• Seed funding from Governor Beebe in May, 2008, established the Cyberinfrastructure Center of Arkansas with four components– Cyberinfrastructure

• Including the Arkansas High Performance Computer Center

– Broadband• Including Connect Arkansas

– Telemedicine• Project funding to UAMS, match to FCC grant

– Arkansas Research and Education Optical Network (ARE-ON)

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Step 2: Leveraging Serious State Funding

ARE-ON has four core agendas1. Research2. Academics3. Telemedicine

and Telehealth4. Emergency

Preparedness

Fayetteville

Magnolia

RussellvilleFort Smith

Arkadelphia

Conway

Monticello

Pine Bluff

Jonesboro

Little Rock

Step 3: Cyberinfrastructure AdvisoryCommittee and Steering CommitteeWrite the Strategic Plan

• The Arkansas Cyberinfrastructure Advisory Committee is very similar in membership to the EAC Internal Steering Committee

• Meetings were held during fall, 2008• The plan was published in October, 2008

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Arkansas Cyberinfrastructure Strategic Plan• http://areon.net/resources/Cyberinfrastru

ctureStrategicPlan20081024.pdf

• Words are borrowed liberally from the EAC Final Report– About ten specific recommendations

• Have to define what cyberinfrastructure will mean– What it is– What it is not

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Arkansas Cyberinfrastructure Strategic Plan

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Arkansas CyberinfrastructureARE-ON SupercomputingLarge scale storage

Arkansas CyberinfrastructureARE-ON SupercomputingLarge scale storage

TelemedicineArkansas TeleHealth Network

TelemedicineArkansas TeleHealth Network

BusinessPrecision farmingLarge scale business modeling and more…

BusinessPrecision farmingLarge scale business modeling and more…

ResearchNanotechnologyGeoinformaticsand more…

ResearchNanotechnologyGeoinformaticsand more…

EducationComputational science, engineering, math, and technology

EducationComputational science, engineering, math, and technology

Emergency Preparednes

s

Emergency Preparednes

s

Connect Arkansas

Planning & Outreach

Connect Arkansas

Planning & Outreach

Service Providers

Cyberinfrastructureis in the contextof many otheractivities in thestate.

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Communicate– Craft an engaging communication strategy

and an on-going process to identify state needs and resources

Develop– Develop an implementation plan for

cyberinfrastructure with long-term vision

Sustain– Create a sustainable funding model and

advocate for sustained funding

Arkansas Cyberinfrastructure Strategic Plan – Three Strategic Goals

Cyberinfrastructure Task Force Act

• Arkansas Act 978 is a key step to meeting our first strategic goal – communicate!

• http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2009/R/Pages/BillInformation.aspx?measureno=hb2011

• Representative Jon Woods, Chair of the House Technology Committee, was our sponsor

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Cyberinfrastructure Task Force Act

As used in this subchapter, “cyberinfrastructure” means shared high performance computing, data storage systems, data repositories, advanced instruments, data center facilities, visualization environments, and people, all linked together by software and an advanced statewide optical network to improve and enable breakthroughs not otherwise possible.

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Planners, Participants, and Sources of HelpResearch and undergraduate serving

universities• Faculty – the researchers!

– The cyberinfrastructure resources have to be driven by the applications and research needs

• Chief Research Officer, Chief Information Officer• IT staff• Chief Academic Officer, deans, department

heads• Student organizations – help in “marketing”• Graduate students and post docs – major users!!

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Planners, Participants, and Sources of HelpLarge corporate partners and small

business partners• Including key business leaders and business

organizations– For example, Accelerate Arkansas

• These can help to lobby the Governor and the Legislature

• These are key in economic development• These hire the graduates with the training that

has been enabled by the cyberinfrastructure

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Planners, Participants, and Sources of HelpState participants• Department of Information Services (DIS)• Department of Finance and Administration• Department of Higher Education• Governor’s Technology Advisor• State legislators and legislative committees• Broadband council• State funding agencies

– Arkansas Science and Technology Authority

• State EPSCoR office20

Planners, Participants, and Sources of HelpExternal Advisors – from your EAC and also in

the national community• Coalition for Academic Scientific Computation

http://www.casc.org • Educause, Educause Committee on

Cyberinfrastructure• Internet2• Professional colleagues at major institutions

and national labs

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Dimensions of Cyberinfrastructure Implementation

Planners, Participants, and Sources of HelpThe Computer Science Department in

your Institutions• They can support and create courses and

curricula appropriate for computational science and engineering

• For CS to be helpful the institution must encourage and reward interdisciplinary educational and research activities as a part of the tenure process

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Planners, Participants, and Sources of HelpPeer Institutions in our Region• ARE-ON institutions are pairing with peer

institutions in Louisiana – a 1:1 match for all ARE-ON sites

• GPN is a source of collaboration and pairing• Others examples include SURAGrid and Open

Science Grid

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Planners, Participants, and Sources of HelpNational Science Foundation• Office of Cyberinfrastructure

– Planning and workshop grants

• NSF EPSCoR– Track 1 and Track 2 now require

cyberinfrastructure strategic plans

• Computer Information Systems and Engineering Directorate– A major funder of MRI instruments, which is a major

source of campus-level high performance computers

Planners, Participants, and Sources of HelpSC Education Program and Broader

Engagement• Talk to Henry Neeman!!• Workshops, conference programs, educational

materials• Student volunteer program• SC mentor program

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Planners, Participants, and Sources of HelpTeraGrid• TeraGrid Champions program

– Talk to Jeff Pummill jpummil@uark.edu

• Educational programs and materials• Colleagues and programs at NSF Track 1

and Track 2 sites• Support for CI Days

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Amy Apon, Ph.D., aapon@uark.edu Mike Abbiatti, Mike.Abbiatti@areon.net

http://hpc.uark.edu/ http://www.areon.net/

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Contact information