Diane Baxter Welcome to the San Diego Supercomputer Center Dr. Diane Baxter Education Director San Diego Supercomputer Center Thanks to Fran Berman, Jeff Sale, and Krishna Madhavan, for slides and inspiration

Diane Baxter SDSC Education Mission To create a diverse, innovative, ethical, and thoughtful next generation of cyberinfrastructure- fluent scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and research professionals.

Diane Baxter Computing – in the beginning... Popular Mechanics, 1954 Electric Counting Machine, 1951

Diane Baxter Today computing is about more than computers Cyberinfrastructure is the term used to include the hardware, software, and services that provide an “end-to-end” information technology resource. network data computer storage field instrument network computer data network computer viz computer sensors field data wireless

Diane Baxter Cyberinfrastructure is a lifestyle Communication Entertainment Shopping

Diane Baxter Our students are IT “natives” Assume the web Assume anytime, anywhere, instant communication Assume that everything is available and (virtually) free Assume that one can adapt to things in real time (RPG) Assume that none of the resources must actually be where you are (the Internet)

Diane Baxter Faculty are both IT “immigrants” and educational pioneers Most faculty took courses in which textbooks were expected to provide course content. Teachers’ IT skills often lag behind their students’. Standardized tests that are supposed to measure student preparation continue to focus more on content than on learning process skills or technology use. But... students’ understanding of IT is highly variable; teachers can not assume a commons starting point and thus they must assume there will be IT skill gaps. The rate of change in science and technology course content is faster than ever before, demanding that teachers actively learn new content as they teach. (That means more preparation time per course hour.)

Diane Baxter Science has also changed Formerly, scientists’ primary tools were direct observation and measurement.

Diane Baxter Today : Science is a Team Sport Astronomy Physics Life Sciences Modeling and Simulation Data Management and Mining GAMESS Geosciences

Diane Baxter Scientists share ideas, data and resources using vast grids... SDSC PRAGMA: Pacific Rim Grid Middleware Consortium TeraGrid: National Research Resource Grid GEON: Geosciences Grid BIRN: Biomedical Informatics Grid Open Science Grid: Physics-driven Grid infrastructure NEES: Earthquake Engineering Grid

Diane Baxter Major Earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault, 1680-present 1906 M M 7.7 How dangerous is the San Andreas Fault? Geoscience researchers can now use massive amount of geological, historical, and environmental data to simulate natural disasters such as earthquakes. Focus: Understanding big earthquakes and their impacts. Simulations combine large-scale data collections, high- resolution models, and big supercomputer runs Simulation results provide new scientific information enabling better Estimation of seismic risk Emergency preparation, response and planning Design of next generation of earthquake-resistant structures Results provide immense societal benefits which can help in saving many lives and billions in economic losses to do things they couldn’t do alone...

Diane Baxter Sharing data across and among disciplines creates new perspectives. DisciplinaryDatabases Users Portals, Domain Specific APIs provide access to data Middleware federates data across disciplinary vocabularies Organisms Organs Cells Atoms Biopolymers Organelles Cell Biology Anatomy Physiology Proteomics Medicinal Chemistry Genomics Life Sciences

Diane Baxter What can SDSC Education programs offer? Professional development opportunities for faculty (classes, workshops, tutorials) Standards-based, “data-flavored” curricula Project-based and hands-on learning opportunities for high school through graduate students Free, web-based resources for educators at all levels Web-based resources and shared communication space to support implementation and help build communities of practice

Diane Baxter SDSC Education’s Approach Highlight data’s power and intrigue Feature computational approaches to real-world issues Link pre-college curricula to standards and to research data Seek data and computational links for expanding fields Scaffold all programs with web-based resources, rapid response to questions, and recognition of student and educator successes. Involve educators in planning and use participant feedback to adapt programs to changing needs and audiences Partner with community colleges and minority-serving institutions to ensure next-generation workforce diversity.

Diane Baxter Focus on critical learning skills... Understanding Data Teamwork Problem-solving techniques Using Community Technologies

Diane Baxter Understanding Data - SDSC Discover Data Educators’ Portal

Diane Baxter Teamwork Student Teams: Project-based Learning (EPICS, TIES) Share Data (e.g. environmental monitoring) Team internships with SDSC staff Educator Teams share: New Curricula and Educational Resources Assessment Approaches and Outcomes Success Stories and Lessons Learned

Diane Baxter Problem-Solving... Technology in education (StudentTech) Technology for communities (TIES, with Jacobs School of Engineering) New technologies: HPC and grid computing challenges (TeraGrid and SC Student Contests) Computational challenges in research (Student SAC Program, TeraGrid Science Gateways, CI-HASS)

Diane Baxter Community Building Pathways to Cyberinfrastructure – National Supercomputing Education Program – SCXY TeraGrid Education, Outreach, and Training SDSC TeacherTECH HPC Summer Institutes CI team internships that build domain-based graduate student communities (2007) Communication Technologies (CI-Channel)

Diane Baxter When are we successful? When students use CI to explore and understand data as readily as they drive their cars. Use integrated and specialized CI tools – without needing to build their own. Expect to know how CI will work each time – without surprises. Seek and find instruction that’s easily available and user-friendly Know how to find someone to fix it when it breaks Because it’s about where you’re going, not how your car works

Diane Baxter Thank You and Welcome to SDSC