Richard A. Alo, University of Houston - Downtown OCI-0636352 Minority Serving Institutions (MSI)-Cyberinfrastructure (CI) Empowerment Coalition (MSI-CIEC)
Project Abstract
The Minority Serving Institutions (MSI)-Cyberinfrastructure (CI) Empowerment Coalition (MSI-CIEC) provides essential communication, support and training linkages through a CI-enabled distributed education and research network for MSI executives, administrators, faculty, students and researchers interested in e-science and CI initiatives nationwide. MSI-CIEC provides the needed human "middleware" to foster research and education collaborations between CI-enabled MSI's and national and international CI initiatives accelerating the inclusion of MSIs and their students into the growing national CI activities. This activity prepares the current and next-generation scientists at MSIs to use, support, deploy, develop or design CI. Our Broad Range Impacts dynamically evolve since developing the MSI capacity prepares underrepresented minority students for a future in CI-facilitated science and the knowledge-based economy, and provides an opportunity for them to succeed as the next generation of the professoriate. Through a novel collaboration of MSIs and key leaders in CI, the Alliance for Equity in Higher Education (AEHE) builds further enhancement as it impacts more than 335 Institutions engaging the entire MSI community and provides a model for building the CI and e-science knowledge and skills of MSI faculty and growing an inclusive national CI-enabled research infrastructure. The project advances the knowledge associated with building technology-mediated, multi-institutional and cross ethnic research and educational collaborations critical for CI development.
