ITSC Issue Forum: Toward a Common Long-Term Vision for NEES Cyberinfrastructure & IT Services

Committee Members John Babbitt (Board liaison; IT professional) Jacobo Bielak (Chair; Engr.) Peter Couvares (External IT expert representative) Jerome Hajjar (Chair-elect; equipment site rep.; Engr.) Laura Lowes (Facility user representative; Engr.) Jason Hanley (Equipment site representative; IT) Jon Lea (HQ Staff liaison; NEES Chief IT Engineer) Cheri Pancake (IT professional) Andrei Reinhorn (Board liaison; Engr.) Sri Sritharan (Facility user representative; Engr.) Chris Stanton (Equipment site representative; IT) Lelli Van Den Einde (NEESit representative; Engr.) Shannon Whitmore (NEESit representative; IT) Daniel Wilson (Equipment site representative; Engr.) Cliff Roblee (non-member; NEES Executive Director)

Agenda Panel presentations (40 min) Audience discussion (40 min) Survey questions (15 min) Further discussion (15 min) Main conclusions (10 min)

ITSC Issue Forum Panelists Jerome Hajjar (UIUC), IT as a Bridge for Research Collaboration Over Distance and Time Andrei Reinhorn (UBuffalo), Achieving a Data Legacy from NEES Research Gregory Fenves (UCBerkeley), Integration of Numerical and Physical Simulation Stephany Couch (Corp for Ed. Network Initiatives in CA), The Education, Outreach, andTraining Potential of NEES’ Cyberinfrastructure James Myers (NCSA), Integration with Advanced CI Tools from Other Communities Lelli Van Den Einde (NEESit, SDSC), Integration of Vision Element

Overarching Themes NEES’ cyberinfrastructure serves a central role in meeting NEES’ most ambitious goals of fundamentally changing the earthquake engineering research culture. It provides the technological means to increase and diversify participation in research activities, facilitate rich and open collaboration across distance and time, leverage international resources and expertise, seamlessly integrate the capabilities of numerical and physical simulation, and accelerate the transfer of basic knowledge for purposes of both education and practical application. At the most fundamental level, it provides the means to integrate a geographically-dispersed collection of unique laboratory facilities, data and simulation centers, research groups, and education activities into a cohesive entity capable of accelerating the rate of research discovery and knowledge transfer.

Vision elements Collaboration: NEES cyberinfrastructure enables rich and open collaboration and synergism between diverse experts and resources across distance and time by providing both geographically- distributed and temporally-separated researchers access to common sets of resources and experiences. Data: NEES’ data archives are a centralized resource for curated high-value data sets related to earthquake engineering that can be readily searched, shared, and re-analyzed by researchers and other users throughout the world. The data includes, but is not limited to, experimental research, analytical simulations, and resource inventories (e.g. reconnaissance images, recordings, data sets). Simulation: NEES’ high-end computational capabilities provides for advanced modeling, analysis, and simulation of earthquake effects on the built infrastructure. NEES’ computational capabilities support a virtuous circle of physical and numerical simulation needed to design, calibrate, and verify proposed designs and models.

Vision elements (2) Visualization: NEES’ advanced visualization tools enable researchers to extract information and insight into complex system behavior from both experimental data sets and simulation results. Hybrid Sim: NEES’ cyberinfrastructure enables seamless operational linkage of multiple unique independent testing and simulation capabilities throughout the network to allow NEES and partner researchers to perform comprehensive distributed physical and numerical simulations of infrastructure systems. EOT: NEES’ cyberinfrastructure provides and facilitates unique and effective pathways for education and knowledge transfer to earthquake risk stakeholders, K-20 educators in STEM disciplines, and the interested public.

Vision elements (3) Advanced CI: NEES’ cyberinfrastructure leverages recent advances in cyberinfrastructure technologies to maximize interoperability with other scientific communities. The NEES community serves as exemplar pioneering users of advanced cyberinfrastructure and a focal point for education within the engineering disciplines on the effective use of advanced cyberinfrastructure. Integration: NEES’ flexible cyberinfrastructure architecture is based on Web Services to facilitate integration of community- developed tools and other data resources. Further, NEES provides support for workflows (movement of data through a work process to support interconnected tools, handling of multiple data formats and large data quantities) within the overall NEESit environment.

Question 1 1. Are the “IT Vision Elements” discussed in today’s Issue Forum sufficiently comprehensive of NEES’ IT needs now and into the future? ◦o Yes, all major needs are covered. ◦o Mostly, but some important needs missing. ◦o Somewhat, but many elements missing. ◦o Not really, these mostly miss the target.

Questions The next 3 questions ask for the 3 capabilities (“IT Vision Elements”) that you believe NEES should prioritize for rapid advancement in the NEXT YEAR.

Questions 2, 3, 4 2. Which “IT Vision Element” is your NUMBER 1 priority this year? 3. Which “IT Vision Element” is your NUMBER 2 priority this year? 4. Which “IT Vision Element” is your NUMBER 3 priority this year? o Collaboration o Data o Simulation o Visualization o Hybrid Sim. o EOT o Advanced Cyberinfrastructure o Integration of Systems o Other

Question 5 5. Of the “IT Vision Elements” discussed in today’s Issue Forum, which capability do you believe is most important to the long- term legacy of NEES in TEN YEARS? o Collaboration o Data o Simulation o Visualization o Hybrid Sim. o EOT o Advanced Cyberinfrastructure o Integration of Systems o Other

Question 6 6. Does the proposed “Overarching Vision” articulate the correct IT vision for the community? o Yes, it is compelling and well articulated. o OK, but needs more detail. o OK, but needs to be more concise. o OK, but needs to be better integrated. o No, it misses the target altogether.

Thanks a million for your participation