CyberTraining: CIP - Professional Skills for CyberAmbassadors

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

Scientists and engineers use advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) to conduct research that benefits society. For instance, engineers use CI to build faster airplanes; doctors use CI to discover new medicines; and scientists use CI to develop safer materials. CI includes hardware (like supercomputers, high-speed networks, digital cameras, and cloud-based storage), as well as the software and tools used to collect, organize and analyze information. CI Professionals are experts at developing and using CI, and scientists and engineers from many disciplines ask CI Professionals to help them use cyberinfrastructure in their research. In order to work effectively with these disciplinary experts, CI Professionals need to be able to communicate across disciplines, work in diverse teams, and serve as collaborative leaders and mentors. This project develops a training program to help CI Professionals build these professional skills such as communication, teamwork and leadership so that they can work more effectively with scientists and engineers and help them use CI to improve research in many areas. This project provides professional skills training for technically proficient CI Professionals, with the goal of developing CyberAmbassadors who are prepared to lead multidisciplinary, computationally-intensive research at their home institutions. CyberAmbassadors will also be prepared to help mentor the next generation of CI Professionals and CI Users, who will become a sustaining source of new CyberAmbassadors. The first objective is to develop curriculum that builds professional skills (communications, teamwork, leadership) within the context of large scale, multi-disciplinary computational research. The curriculum will be developed with input from an External Advisory Board of CI Professionals and CI Users from academia, industry and national laboratories. The pedagogical approach is grounded in constructivism and socioculturism, and will combine in-person training with examples from real, multi-disciplinary research. The second objective is to pilot, evaluate and revise the curriculum. Pilot trainings will be held at Michigan State University (MSU), at appropriate CI conferences, and at other institutions and laboratories. During the pilot process, approximately 75 individuals will be trained as CyberAmbassadors and the curriculum will be evaluated and refined based on these experiences. The third objective is to "train the trainers" by collaborating with external partners (XSEDE, Blue Waters, Software/Data Carpentry, Tau Beta Pi) to prepare a cohort of at least 20 facilitators who can offer the CyberAmbassadors training through regional or national events. 100-150 additional participants will complete the CyberAmbassadors program during the "train the trainers" process. The curriculum developed as part of this project will be offered on a free, open-source basis, with the longer-term goal of making the CyberAmbassadors training regularly available at academic and research institutions nationwide.