This proposal will be awarded using funds made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The growth of South Dakota State University's (SDSU's) research portfolio places high demands on SDSU's cyberinfrastructure. This project will renovate the campus data center. The work will involve the following: (1) upgrading the electrical power and cooling systems; (2) reconfiguring the physical space; and (3) upgrading the local area network (LAN) core distribution infrastructure.
The research topics that would benefit from this renovation include global fire monitoring, global deforestation mapping, US crop mapping, disease early warning systems in the Northern Great Plains (West Nile virus) and the Ethiopian Highlands (epidemic malaria), disturbance effects on biodiversity in Amazonia, modeling the effects of changing phenologies on regional weather, disease detection, prevention and prediction using climate models and disease trends, climate impacts on bird migratory patterns, global warming, climate pattern and its impact on agriculture, agricultural meteorology and yield assessment research, drought monitoring, wind resource assessment research, and photovoltaics.
SDSU scientists and student researchers will have local access to a world-class research facility that helps ensure a more stable economic base for the state. The project will allow SDSU scientists to partner with the fledgling research park, the SDSU Innovation Campus, which is a joint effort between the local community, the state, and the University which is intended to foster research partnerships between private industry and University scientists. In addition, the research capability of the SDSU researchers will be enhanced by real-time integration of full data sets with the National Weather Services' climate products. An outcome will be more accurate products depicting the extent of hail, wind and rain events so that when local governments and farmers /ranchers assess disaster or livestock/crop damage they will have the best information possible.
Description: South Dakota State University, with the assistance of an RIAA grant, was able to effectively upgrade elements of its research infrastructure to create an impactful tool for researchers to use. Prior to the upgrade, the electrical system in the research center was more than 60 years old, inefficient and unable to meet the demands of current work; the HVAC system and lighting in the space was inadequate; and IT connectivity within the space was restricted, at best, among the research servers and the databases with which they worked. Since the renovation, the electrical system has been upgraded to meet current demands and anticipate future needs; the addition of two natural gas generators has made this a much more reliable system. Other renovation included removal of aging uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for a more efficient system. The new UPS controls power spikes for clean, consistent power for the research servers. Along with the renovation of the electrical systems, additional space was converted to a usable area for research servers through the addition of new lighting and removal of the old equipment. Increasing this space allowed new high-capacity routers/switches to be added so the research servers. As a result, the supporting data servers can communicate at significantly higher speeds. Outcomes There are several significant research outcomes that are directly linked to this work: · The SDSU Climate Center has been able to double the amount of climate data collected and distributed from all sources; · Server down-time has become almost nil for data collection distribution, compared to where we were; · The Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence (GSCE) has been able to increase its efforts by more than 25 percent; and · The photovoltaic research group now can investigate a greater and more complete set of polymers related to solar cell development. Examples Photovoltaics: The following is a press release describing a successful initiative funded, in part, by an NSF grant: "A South Dakota State University research company wants to make solar power affordable for everyone. Applied NanoFilms is a new product-development company based on research conducted at SDSU. It's come up with more efficient solar cell technology which could allow homeowners to wrap an entire house with flexible solar panels and make solar energy more competitive with other sources. Applied NanoFilms has received $250,000 in grant money, in part from the National Science Foundation, as well as investment funding, to help develop its coating technology for solar panels. The company will also be presenting its work at an industry conference in Colorado this week." (Mark Luecke, Chief Executive Officer of South Dakota Innovation Partners, LLC – 9/10/201) Climate data collection and distribution: Now that the Climate Center can process more data at faster rates, they are able to share their results more quickly with the National Weather Service which, in turn is able to produce better information and forecasts for South Dakota. State Climatologist Dr. Dennis Todey said, "These additional observations serve to increase public safety by measuring and confirming severe weather (especially wind gusts) for issuance of severe weather warnings noting particular areas of heavy rainfall for flash flood forecasts showing subtle wind shift boundaries which can help to forecast convection initiation or subtle wind shift boundaries which are important for spot fire forecasts." SDSU Climate Center is also working with a modeling group from North Dakota State University using our state weather data to help forecast disease occurrence among small grain crop productions. The North Dakota model will be adapted and using South Dakota data for forecasts. This type of work is being done in South Dakota for the first time, as a direct result of the improved infrastructure. Todey also said that the increase in data gathered from our weather stations is now benefiting other agricultural activities, including monitoring the effects of wind on chemical spraying; and using temperature data to track crop development throughout growing seasons using a temperature index called a growing degree day. These complex calculations have been particularly important during a growing season when crop development has been delayed because of late planting and cool conditions. Producers now are tracking the data closely to assure that corn will mature before experiencing the first freeze. All of this information is now available on the Climate Center site hosted at South Dakota State University. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE
