Collaborative, interactive, and scalable knowledge discovery, in the form on processing and visualizing massive amounts of complex geospatial data and performing associated analysis and simulation, have become essential to fulfilling the important role of the emerging and vibrant interdisciplinary field of CyberGIS -- geographic information science and systems (GIS) based on advanced cyberinfrastructure -- in enabling computing- and data-intensive research and education across a broad swath of academic disciplines with significant societal impacts.
This project supports these activities by establishing the CyberGIS Facility as an innovative instrument equipped with capabilities that include high-performance data access with large disk storage, cutting-edge computing configured with advanced graphics processing units, and visualization supported with fast network and dynamically provisioned cloud computing resources. The CyberGIS Facility represents a groundbreaking advance in the broad context of advanced cyberinfrastructure and geospatial sciences and technologies. The Facility enables researchers to solve a diverse set of major and complex scientific problems (e.g., climate and weather predictions, emergency management, and environmental and energy sustainability) in multidisciplinary, bio, engineering, geo, and social sciences that would otherwise be impossible or difficult to tackle. Extensive advances in various education and training efforts (e.g., new courses, cross-disciplinary curricula, and online learning materials) help to produce a next-generation workforce for fostering CyberGIS-enabled discoveries and innovations. Facility users represent a wide range of disciplines and conduct leading-edge research sponsored by various agencies and organizations (e.g., NSF, Environmental Protection Agency, National Institutes of Health, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and U.S. Geological Survey), which highlight the impact that this project has in enabling broad and significant scientific advances.
