Cyberinfrastructure

OK NSF EPSCoR Research Product Clearinghouse

The Research Product Clearinghouse portion of the EPSCoR website provides access to a diverse and important body of resources from the OK NSF EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Award No. OIA-1301789 (2013-2018), “Adapting Socio-Ecological Systems to Increased Climate Variability.” This project has generated numerous products that will prove beneficial for researchers, decision-makers, and individuals. One such significant resource is Oklahoma's cyberinfrastructure plan and programs. Led by Oklahoma NSF EPSCoR researchers Drs. Dana Brunson and Henry Neeman, Oklahoma's Cyberinfrastructure plan has been used as a model for other EPSCoR states to follow.

Oklahoma EPSCoR’s Cyberinfrastructure (CI) Plan consists of the utilization of CI resources, the development of a state-wide strategic CI initiative and the formation of the Oklahoma Cyberinfrastructure Initiative (OCII, pronounced “Okie”), an unprecedented state-wide CI advisory group. The OK EPSCoR RII Award 2008-2013 directly led to the execution of a first-time Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, which established OCII.  This historic initiative, led by the Oklahoma Cyberinfrastructure Council, is made up of OU and OSU chief information officers and cyberinfrastructure directors, as well as the OneNet System state director. 

The EPSCoR CI Plan provides the following systems and benefits for Oklahomans:

"Since 2002, with Oklahoma’s first appearance on the list of Top 500 World's Fastest Supercomputers, the state has appeared on the list more consistently than any other long-standing EPSCoR jurisdiction, except those with federally funded national supercomputing centers; in fact, all of our appearances have been internally funded.

Statewide, our supercomputing user density is nine times as high as that of the TeraGrid, a nationwide supercomputing metacenter consisting of supercomputing resource providers at eleven institutions coast to coast."

Dr. Henry Neeman,
Director,
OU Supercomputing Center for Education & Research (OSCER)

 

  • State-wide CI training programs, supercomputing workshops and symposia, led by industry leaders to educate Oklahoma researchers and instructors on CI topics
  • High-performance computing and high throughput computing systems: OSU High Performance Computing Center and the OU Supercomputing Center for Education and Research
  • Large-scale data resources
  • State-wide OneNet network that includes both National Lambda Rail connectivity at 10 Gbps and Internet2 connectivity
  • Optical connections to all Oklahoma EPSCoR institutions through the state’s OneNet system (one of only three EPSCoR states to claim this accomplishment)
  • CI outreach to K-12 schools and regional academic institutions
  • All academic institutions in the state (public, private, K-12 and higher education) are eligible to sign up for free use of OU’s and OSU’s centrally-owned CI resources
  • Other institutions (government, NGO, commercial) are eligible to use the CI resources, though not necessarily for free
  • A Condor pool is being developed at OSU, which will flock with OU’s pool to provide an aggregate of over 1,000 PCs to the entire Oklahoma community, with an aggregate peak capacity of over 8 TFLOPs
  • The established OU Rounds Program, which provides one-on-one CI help, is now available statewide
  • Discussions are underway with the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) to alert Oklahoma companies to available OCII resources

Oklahoma NSF Inter-Campus and Intra-Campus Cyber Connectivity (C2) Grant

The Oklahoma Information Technology Mentorship Program (OITMP) was established under Oklahoma's National Science Foundation Inter-Campus and Intra-Campus Cyber Connectivity (C2) grant, "Oklahoma Optical Initiative" (EPS-1006919). The project is under the direction of Dr. Henry Neeman, director of the University of Oklahoma Supercomputing Center for Education and Research.

Workshops are held at sites across the state and cover topics such as networking, security and Web development.  Attendees will find answers to questions such as: 

  • What is it like to be a network professional?
  • What are the day to day experiences?
  • What issues of professionalism, customer service, project management and career growth does a network professional encounter?
  • How can you prepare yourself to be a more attractive job candidate, and what do network professionals look for in prospective employees?
  • What is the structure of the network design at certain institutions?

Presentations from previous C2 workshops may be accessed at http://www.oscer.ou.edu/oitmp.php. 

For more information about OK NSF EPSCoR CI program contact Dr. Dana Brunson at dana.brunson@okstate.edu or Dr. Henry Neeman at hneeman@ou.edu.