Participant Support for the 2016 NSF CyberBridges Workshop

Rochester Institute Of Tech, Rochester NY

Investigators

Abstract

Computing has become a pervasive part of the global human society and has powered a radical transformation in the ways in which the nation designs and produces goods, delivers services, and conducts business. A new generation of faculty in computational- and data-enabled science and engineering have emerged for whom computing is a seamless and integral part of their work. The shift in the way in which faculty work within disciplinary communities that includes new forms of digital scholarship as well as interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaborative efforts has created contemporary challenges on their path to make an impact in their fields as well as earning institutional and disciplinary recognition. To meet the challenges of supporting interdisciplinary cyberinfrastructure (CI) research and education, it is now urgent for the CI community to recognize the fundamental causes for these challenges and the potential solutions to overcome these challenges. The specific objectives of this workshop are to 1) identify priority problem areas that constitute the fundamental causes of the challenges in interdisciplinary CI research and education, and 2) devise an initial set of strategies, approaches, and potential solutions that could be implemented at a personal, organizational, and/or national level to ameliorate these problems. Thus, it is aligned with NSF's mission in promoting progress in science. These objectives will be achieved by harvesting wisdom from the prior four CyberBridges workshops and conducting focused discussion and problem-solving sessions. The long-term goal of this workshop is to raise the awareness in the CI community of the challenges that impede progress and affect early and mid career interdisciplinary CI faculty, and to promote the adoption of strategies at community level to mitigate these challenges. The broader impact is expected to be significant. The PIs has elaborate plans for recruitment of attendees from diverse backgrounds, both CI-users and CI-contributors, and including those from underrepresented groups. This may help create a model for career pathways for cyberinfratstructure researchers and educators. In the long term, the roadmap created may contribute to advancement of science with better-motivated and prepared scientific workforce.