The intellectual merit of this workshop is in the area of cyberinfrastructure, defined herein as a set of base technologies for computation, storage, communication, and data processing services. The cyberinfrastructure has become a reality in recent years; its development has already impacted many, if not all, scientific fields; and there is a growing consensus that future progress in computer and network technologies, combined with the dissemination of these technologies on a global scale, will lead to further revolutionary changes in scientific methods and organizations. Mindful of this new world of possibilities, NSF is actively promoting the development of a nationwide strategy to build a cyberinfrastructure in support of 21st century scientific discovery and engineering innovations.
As part of this wider ongoing effort, a 1.5-day workshop will be held to bring together the U.S. combustion science community to meet the following objectives: (1) have combustion scientists participate in the development of a nation-wide strategy to build a cyberinfrastructure; (2) identify specific cyberinfrastructure capabilities and needs in support of combustion science and combustion engineering education; (3) develop a community-wide vision for combustion science, that is consistent with, building upon, and embracing the revolutionary changes in methods and organizations that will accompany the new cyberinfrastructure.
The workshop will take place on April 19-20, 2006, at NSF headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Participants will include representatives of the combustion science community from academia, national laboratories, government agencies, and industry. The workshop will consist of a mix of invited talks and breakout group discussion sessions. Three breakout sessions, possibly emphasizing the following themes, are planned: (1) sub-community-specific, cyber-based combustion science applications (i.e. high-performance computing, chemical libraries, sensor-driven modeling, etc); (2) community-wide, cyber-based combustion science applications (i.e. web-enabled collaboratories); and (3) cyber-based combustion education (i.e. curriculum and work force opportunities and needs for academia, government and industry, in a cyber-based environment).
The broader impact of the workshop will be in the articulation of a community-wide vision for a new combustion science and education strategy empowered by the emerging cyberinfrastructure. This vision will include a list of recommendations to NSF to facilitate the adaptation of combustion science to the new cyber-induced transformations in scientific methods and organizations. Deliverables include a website and a final report.
