Envisioning Success: A Workshop for Next Generation EarthCube Scholars and Scientists

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

The diversity of data and data types in the geosciences and their dispersal among various academic institutions and federal agencies, all of which have their own data formats and associated search and discovery criteria have prevented maximum effective utilization of this tremendous wealth of information. To ameliorate this situation, a new NSF initiative, called EarthCube, which is jointly funded by the Directorate of Geosciences and the Office of Cyberinfrastructure, was initiated in 2011 to create an interoperable and integrated data and knowledge management for the geo- and environmental sciences. An integral part of the process is geoscience and cyberinfrastructure community engagement, at all levels, to ensure that EarthCube's final design and implementation serves all end user needs. Crucial to the success of EarthCube is its ability to serve the future needs of geoscientists and its ability to scale to new developments in computer science and technology. To enable input from early career geo-and cyber scientists, a workshop, focused on the expected career trajectory of early career scientists likely to be end users and infrastructure developers, has been funded to examine their needs and to project into the future how these early career professionals envision how EarthCube will impact their science and career trajectories. The workshop is being held at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. It is being hosted by a diverse team of convenors and is focused on collecting input from this crucial early career demographic. The two-day workshop will involve participants from 41 different disciplines within the geo and cyber sciences from around the US. Broader impacts of the work include providing key stakeholder input into the design of a major NSF activity focused on building infrastructure for science and engaging early career scientists in the process.