Collaborative Research: CyberTraining: Implementation: Medium: Cyber Training for Open Science in Climate, Water and Environmental Sustainability

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

Climate, Water and Environment (CWE) sustainability is critical for maintaining the overall well-being of the United States and the world. Addressing the current challenges in CWE sustainability requires knowledge and skills of big data analytics, simulations, high-performance computing, and advanced cyberinfrastructures. Yet, their are inadequate training opportunities on integrating and working with data from different sources available to student for CWE research. These include data quality control, analysis, visualization, and simulations. This project fills this gap by creating a CyberTraining curriculum for CWE sustainability that builds on previous successes and incorporates rapidly-developing technology and community best practices in Findable Accessible Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) Science. This project provides CyberTraining to students, trainers and working professionals using publicly available data, simulation tools, and computing resources. This project develops a CWE CyberTraining curriculum to provide training at three levels: (i) foundation level that can be used across multiple disciplines and audiences; (ii) expert level that teaches domain specific data and cyber tools knowledge in CWE domains; and (iii) developer level that provides advanced cyberinfrastructure training for addressing CWE sustainability problems. This curriculum builds upon a proven flexible modular approach, and can be implemented in the form of a sequence of credit courses, non-credit certificates, and degree certificate programs. This CWE CyberTraining curriculum will be disseminated through an open and scalable online platform to overcome technology barriers and enable broader adoption and community contribution. This unique platform will not only disseminate the curriculum, but also provide access to the tools and resources to co-develop and implement the curriculum. The project is co-led by a multi-disciplinary team that has rich experience in developing in-person and online learning modules, cyber-enabled data, computation tools, and platforms driven by community needs, and additionally incorporating these tools in their undergraduate and graduate courses. This project will directly train students at five universities, three community colleges and one high school through its partnership with minority serving institutions. This project is co-funded by a collaboration between the Directorate for Geosciences and Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure to support AI/ML and open science activities in the geosciences. 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.