Welcome to 4 th Annual Meeting of the NEES Collaboratory – Broadening Participation Throughout NEES Bruce Kutter, UC Davis Conference Steering Committee, NEES BOD

4 th Annual Meeting  Issue Forums  NEESit  NEESR projects  Advanced Tools Sessions Hybrid SimulationHybrid Simulation Sensors and InstrumentationSensors and Instrumentation Numerical SimulationsNumerical Simulations  NEES/UCSD Blind Prediction  Broadening Participation International and DomesticInternational and Domestic

Dr. Joseph Bordogna (2004) then Deputy Director, NSF  “NEES, … is a 21st Century model of collaboration, integration, and innovation. It is a distributed, virtual laboratory for earthquake experimentation and simulation. Researchers will share and remotely operate equipment at more than twenty facilities, from shake tables and a tsunami wave basin to field stations.”

Bordogna (2004) (2)  “Using NEESgrid -- a high-performance Internet network -- researchers and students will have a powerful collaborative space for modeling and simulation to study how building design, advanced materials and other measures can minimize earthquake damage and loss of life.  These new distributed tools are also a way to broaden and deepen educational reach -- to underserved populations in our own nation and internationally...”

Bordogna (2004) (3)  “We are only at the beginning of this great revolution*. We know how to share information, but we have not yet tapped the full power of these technologies by integrating them into a new system for research, education, and innovation.” * Italics added

But the revolution is slow  We won the first battles – got the funding and built the equipment, but we have not yet changed the way most people do research,we have not yet changed the way most people do research, Utility and/or utilization of IT tools have not yet lived up to our vision,Utility and/or utilization of IT tools have not yet lived up to our vision, Some, at this meeting, participate because there is money - not because of a desire to collaborate,Some, at this meeting, participate because there is money - not because of a desire to collaborate, And, there is not even as much money as we had hoped for.And, there is not even as much money as we had hoped for.

Stay the Course  The revolution is difficult because it requires a change in culture Funding model for facilities and researchFunding model for facilities and research Credit for sharing of facilities and dataCredit for sharing of facilities and data Broadened access to advanced facilitiesBroadened access to advanced facilities  “If by "Stay the course," they mean that we're not learning from our experiences or adjusting our tactics to meet the challenges on the ground, then they're flat wrong.” (GW, November 30, 2005)

And so, my fellow collaborators, And so, my fellow collaborators, ask not what NEES can do for you - ask what you can do for NEES  Let’s work with broadened participation toward realization of our visions of NEES.  I am hopeful that this meeting will mark a new phase where meetings are filled with exciting research results and IT success stories, gradually replacing speeches about visions of NEES.

I hope you enjoy the meeting!