ITSC Issue Forum: Toward a Common LongTerm Vision for NEES Cyberinfrastructure

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ITSC Issue ForumToward a Common Long-Term
Vision for NEESCyberinfrastructure IT Services
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Committee Members

• John Babbitt (Board liaison IT professional)
• Jacobo Bielak (Chair Engr.)
• Peter Couvares (External IT expert
  representative)
• Jerome Hajjar (Chair-elect equipment site rep.
  Engr.)
• Laura Lowes (Facility user representative Engr.)
• Jason Hanley (Equipment site representative IT)
• Jon Lea (HQ Staff liaison NEES Chief IT
  Engineer)
• Cheri Pancake (IT professional)
• Andrei Reinhorn (Board liaison Engr.)
• Sri Sritharan (Facility user representative
  Engr.)
• Chris Stanton (Equipment site representative IT)
• Lelli Van Den Einde (NEESit representative
  Engr.)
• Shannon Whitmore (NEESit representative IT)
• Daniel Wilson (Equipment site representative
  Engr.)
• Cliff Roblee (non-member NEES Executive
  Director)

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Agenda

• Panel presentations (40 min)
• Audience discussion (40 min)
• Survey questions (15 min)
• Further discussion (15 min)
• Main conclusions (10 min)

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ITSC Issue Forum Panelists

• Jerome Hajjar (UIUC), IT as a Bridge for Research
  Collaboration Over Distance and Time
• Andrei Reinhorn (UBuffalo), Achieving a Data
  Legacy from NEES Research
• Gregory Fenves (UCBerkeley), Integration of
  Numerical and Physical Simulation
• Stephany Couch (Corp for Ed. Network Initiatives
  in CA), The Education, Outreach, andTraining
  Potential of NEES Cyberinfrastructure
• James Myers (NCSA), Integration with Advanced CI
  Tools from Other Communities
• Lelli Van Den Einde (NEESit, SDSC), Integration
  of Vision Element

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Overarching Themes

• NEES cyberinfrastructure serves a central role
  in meeting NEES most ambitious goals of
  fundamentally changing the earthquake engineering
  research culture.
• It provides the technological means to increase
  and diversify participation in research
  activities, facilitate rich and open
  collaboration across distance and time, leverage
  international resources and expertise, seamlessly
  integrate the capabilities of numerical and
  physical simulation, and accelerate the transfer
  of basic knowledge for purposes of both education
  and practical application.
• At the most fundamental level, it provides the
  means to integrate a geographically-dispersed
  collection of unique laboratory facilities, data
  and simulation centers, research groups, and
  education activities into a cohesive entity
  capable of accelerating the rate of research
  discovery and knowledge transfer.

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Vision elements

• Collaboration NEES cyberinfrastructure enables
  rich and open collaboration and synergism between
  diverse experts and resources across distance and
  time by providing both geographically-distributed
  and temporally-separated researchers access to
  common sets of resources and experiences.
• Data NEES data archives are a centralized
  resource for curated high-value data sets related
  to earthquake engineering that can be readily
  searched, shared, and re-analyzed by researchers
  and other users throughout the world. The data
  includes, but is not limited to, experimental
  research, analytical simulations, and resource
  inventories (e.g. reconnaissance images,
  recordings, data sets).
• Simulation NEES high-end computational
  capabilities provides for advanced modeling,
  analysis, and simulation of earthquake effects on
  the built infrastructure. NEES computational
  capabilities support a virtuous circle of
  physical and numerical simulation needed to
  design, calibrate, and verify proposed designs
  and models.

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Vision elements (2)

• Visualization NEES advanced visualization tools
  enable researchers to extract information and
  insight into complex system behavior from both
  experimental data sets and simulation results.
• Hybrid Sim NEES cyberinfrastructure enables
  seamless operational linkage of multiple unique
  independent testing and simulation capabilities
  throughout the network to allow NEES and partner
  researchers to perform comprehensive distributed
  physical and numerical simulations of
  infrastructure systems.
• EOT NEES cyberinfrastructure provides and
  facilitates unique and effective pathways for
  education and knowledge transfer to earthquake
  risk stakeholders, K-20 educators in STEM
  disciplines, and the interested public.

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Vision elements (3)

• Advanced CI NEES cyberinfrastructure leverages
  recent advances in cyberinfrastructure
  technologies to maximize interoperability with
  other scientific communities. The NEES community
  serves as exemplar pioneering users of advanced
  cyberinfrastructure and a focal point for
  education within the engineering disciplines on
  the effective use of advanced cyberinfrastructure.
  
• Integration NEES flexible cyberinfrastructure
  architecture is based on Web Services to
  facilitate integration of community-developed
  tools and other data resources. Further, NEES
  provides support for workflows (movement of data
  through a work process to support interconnected
  tools, handling of multiple data formats and
  large data quantities) within the overall NEESit
  environment.

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Question 1

• 1. Are the IT Vision Elements discussed in
  todays Issue Forum sufficiently comprehensive of
  NEES IT needs now and into the future?
• o Yes, all major needs are covered.
• o Mostly, but some important needs missing.
• o Somewhat, but many elements missing.
• o Not really, these mostly miss the target.

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Questions

• The next 3 questions ask for the 3 capabilities
  (IT Vision Elements) that you believe NEES
  should prioritize for rapid advancement in the
  NEXT YEAR.

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Questions 2, 3, 4
2. Which IT Vision Element is your NUMBER 1
priority this year? 3. Which IT Vision Element
is your NUMBER 2 priority this year? 4. Which
IT Vision Element is your NUMBER 3 priority
this year? o Collaboration o Data o Simulation
o Visualization o Hybrid Sim. o EOT o
Advanced Cyberinfrastructure o Integration of
Systems o Other
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Question 5
5. Of the IT Vision Elements discussed in
todays Issue Forum, which capability do you
believe is most important to the long-term legacy
of NEES in TEN YEARS? o Collaboration o Data o
Simulation o Visualization o Hybrid Sim. o EOT
o Advanced Cyberinfrastructure o Integration of
Systems o Other
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Question 6
6. Does the proposed Overarching Vision
articulate the correct IT vision for the
community? o Yes, it is compelling and well
articulated. o OK, but needs more detail. o OK,
but needs to be more concise. o OK, but needs to
be better integrated. o No, it misses the target
altogether.
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Thanks a million for your participation