This project will engage and inspire the next generation of computational scientists through a series of training and engagement activities, including: a four-day Open Science Grid User School for undergraduate and graduate students; participation by students in the XSEDE12 conference; and supporting attendance by XSEDE Campus Champions from minority serving institutions (MSIs) and smaller colleges and universities at the XSEDE12 conference. These activities build on prior successes with the TeraGrid student program and OSG Summer School and expand the breadth of the impact that XSEDE and OSG will have with the participating students.
The overall goal of the project was to motivate students to pursue educational and professional careers in computational science and engineering while equipping them with the skills, training, and personal connections to help them succeed. This was accomplished through a Student Program at the XSEDE12 conference, Campus Champion support at XSEDE12, and the 2012 Open Science Grid (OSG) User School. The Student Program at XSEDE12 provided activities for over 130 students. Forty-six students were directly supported by the project to attend the full conference and 11 high school students were funded to attend Student Day from the University of Notre Dame’s summer institute. Other student groups served by the Student Program were 39 XSEDE Scholars and 28 from the Student Engagement Program. A student dinner opened the conference orienting students to the conference and giving them a chance to meet with each other and researchers attending the conference. Two tutorial tracks were aimed at students including Supercomputing in Plain English presented by Henry Neeman with hands-on activities using Little Fes (portable six-node computational clusters). Fifty students met with mentors at a Lunch with Interesting People event, 14 teams participated in the Programming Competition -- which also used the LittleFe computational clusters, 42 students presented posters, 8 students presented papers, and 14 students staffed the conference as volunteers. We also gave 6 student awards. The 2012 OSG User School was held at the University of Wisconsin–Madison on June 25–28, 2012. The OSG provided a four-day training program that focused on hands-on activities and direct interactions with OSG staff, XSEDE staff, and local STEM researchers who use large-scale computation. Students used the same large-scale computing systems that researchers use and were led through the entire process of turning research goals into actual computational workflows, then running them to completion. Students ran hundreds or even thousands of jobs throughout the week, encountering and learning to deal with a variety of real-life technical challenges that are common to this area. The OSG program built a foundation for future application, learning, and development by involving students directly in the fundamentals of the field. Purely academic topics were kept to a minimum, and even then were built upon the contextually situated, hands-on experiences. This approach prepared students not only for existing technologies but also for future ones. Campus Champions funded to attend XSEDE12 benefitted from the main conference, as well as specific activities planned for Campus Champions activities. These included informal gatherings of Champions and XSEDE staff, a special dinner event with speakers from XSEDE leadership, a plenary panel discussion involving Campus Champions and all XSEDE12 attendees, small and large group discussions of issues important to Champions, opportunities for networking, and opportunities for new Champions to learn from experienced Champions. Post-conference surveys showed a general satisfaction with the XSEDE12 conference, the XSEDE12 Student Program, and the OSG User School. MSI institutions were also well represented at XSEDE12 in the Student Program and the Campus Champions who would have not otherwise been able to attend XSEDE12 due to lack of funding.
