Major scientific breakthroughs are accomplished by teams of scientists working together, remotely, and accessing distributed datasets and advanced tools via the United States and global research networks. As new cyberinfrastructure technologies emerge to meet the growing needs of the science community, campus personnel at U.S. institutions must learn and adopt the new technologies for U.S. scientists to remain competitive. This need extends to smaller colleges and universities where cutting edge expertise may be less readily available.
For this project, the Great Plains Network is partnering with experts to improve knowledge, expertise and research cyberinfrastructure at campuses in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and South Dakota. Partners are KanREN, MOREnet, OneNet, Reed Network, Network Nebraska, Internet2, ESnet, University of Chicago and University of Oklahoma.
Project objectives include benchmarking and periodically reassessing progress of campuses in the region toward implementing existing and emerging cyberinfrastructure technologies, developing and delivering an online curriculum to improve expertise, creating opportunities for campus participants to learn from leaders in advanced cyberinfrastructure and network technologies, providing outreach to campuses and building a community of support and encouragement for the implementation of new technologies.
The project measures progress by growth in the number of active campus participants across this project's lifespan, growth in the number of unique campuses participating in the project, participant mastery of advanced technology concepts covered in training, and an increase in number of campuses implementing these specific technologies.
This project promises to directly benefit scientists in the fields of physics, bioinformatics, climate modeling, and weather forecasting.
