CC* CRIA: Planning a Regional Cyber-Infrastructure-Research Consortium for Middle Tennessee

University Of Tennessee Chattanooga, Chattanooga TN

Investigators

Abstract

This CC* planning and research alignment project (CRIA) project is led by researchers from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), Tennessee Technological University (TTU), and Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). The mission is to build a regional Cyberinfrastructure consortium to advance collaborative computing research in Middle Tennessee, building on the team's expertise in computer and cyber systems. Middle Tennessee is an underserved but growing region of the nation that combines rural, suburban, and urban areas and sits at a nexus of major transportation routes and commerce in the Southeastern United States. The project is also improving regional workforce development, devising and implementing an innovative plan to broaden participation in computing in the surrounding region, and building interdisciplinary proposal teams to seek external funding to support educational and research activities of consortium members. UTC, TTU, and MTSU have complementary strengths further strengthened by consortium partners. MTSU, for example, has a strong agriculture component to their research endeavors UTC is the strongest of the three teaming institutions in computational science. Sharing information, cyber resources, expertise, and forming collaborative groups will enhance personnel at each member campus. A major goal of this CRIA project is to intensively study approaches to broadening participation in computer/computational science in order to develop and implement a regional plan for recruitment, engagement, and retention of students from underrepresented groups. The team is also committed to improving regional workforce development, which will have a broader impact on students within the teaming institutions and the region. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.