SGCI at CTSC workshop 7-13-17

1. Award Number
ACI-1547611
Nancy Wilkins-Diehr,
SDSC
Science Gateways
Community Institute
and the
Center for Trustworthy Scientific
Cyberinfrastructure

2. What is a science gateway?
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science gateway /sī′ əns gāt′ wā′/ n.
1. an online community space for science
and engineering research and
education.
2. a Web-based resource for
accessing data, software,
computing services, and
equipment specific to the
needs of a science or
engineering discipline.

3. 10+ year road to the birth of an institute
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Despite the technological progress of grid technology and deployment, only a
minority of the scientific, engineering, and education community use today’s
national computing infrastructure. Our WIDE strategy addresses this situation by
working directly with specific community leaders who are building discipline-specific
cyberinfrastructure capabilities and resources for their communities.
TeraGrid proposal, 2003
• “discipline-specific CI capabilities” = science gateways
• First example of community groups using
supercomputers without individual identification

4. Gateway use of HPC has taken off
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All users
Gateways
XSEDE users

5. • Developers typically
• work in isolation
• must bridge to
variety of resources
• need building
blocks in order to
focus on higher-
level functionality
• struggle to secure
sustainable funding
Despite many successes, we observed challenges
Gateways often funded as 3-year research projects
Early
adopters
Publicity
Wider
adoption
Funding
ends
Scientists
disillusioned
New
project
prototype
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6. Who’s creating gateways? Lots of people
57% in recent 5000 person survey of NSF PIs and other
leaders
n of application types=7,805,
by 2,756 creators (out of
2,819); mean=2.8 application
types per application creator
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7. Why is it difficult to build a science gateway?
• Building a gateway takes many types of expertise
• But projects cannot always locate or afford to hire these specialists
• Finding the right people for short-term work is also difficult
• Need for a variety of team members, like a start-up company!
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34% 36%
20%
17%
31%
26%
42%
16%
30%
18%
45% 44%
14% 15%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Usability
Consultant
Graphic
Designer
Community
Liaison/
Evangelist
Project
Manager
Professional
Software
Developer
Security
Expert
Quality
Assurance
and Testing
Expert
Wished we had this
Yes, we had this

8. Access to
specialized
services can help
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Service % Interest
Evaluation, impact analysis, website
analytics
72%
Adapting technologies 67%
Web/visual/graphic design 67%
Choosing technologies 66%
Usability Services 66%
Developing open-source software 64%
Support for education 64%
Keeping your project running 62%
Legal perspectives 61%
Managing data 60%
Cybersecurity consultation 57%
Website construction 57%
Software engineering process
consultation
53%
Source code review and/or audit 51%
High band-width networks 45%
Scientific instruments or data streams 44%
Management aspects of a project 38%
• Many topics well-
suited for short-term
consulting

9. So what did we do about this?
Science Gateways Community Institute launched Aug, 2016
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Diverse expertise
on demand
Longer-term,
hands-on support
Student
opportunities &
educator resources
Sharing
experiences &
knowledge as a
community
Software & visibility
for gateways

10. Incubator: Consulting expertise and in
depth training
• Building a gateway can take may types of expertise
• But projects cannot afford to hire this in
• Consulting services provide cost effective solution
• Get expertise you need when you need it, release it when
you’re finished
• In depth cohorts for training, group interactions,
mentoring
• Customized structure, content and goals
• ACTION: Request services at
http://sciencegateways.org/services/gateway-
services-request-form/
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11. Effective consulting means utilizing
experts
• Center for Trustworthy Scientific
Cyberinfrastructure
• Funded partner in SGCI
• Brought in because of their reputation as cybersecurity
experts
• Randy Heiland (IU)
• Senior Systems Analyst/Programmer, IU Center for Applied
Cybersecurity Research (CACR)
• Computer scientist and applied mathematician, experience in
industry, government labs, and academia
• Contributed to science gateways as a software developer.
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12. Additional Incubator experts
• MICHAEL ZENTNER, Ph.D., MBA
• Director of the SGCI Incubator, Senior Research Scientist and Director of HUBzero Platform for Science and Engineering, Entrepreneur in
Residence at the Purdue Foundry. Michael has been a technology company founder or senior team member for 18 years, has worked extensively to
apply research in industry, and currently oversees the development and deployment of the HUBzero science gateway platform, a self sustaining
business unit at Purdue University. Michael is also co-PI on the nanoHUB.org project, a science gateway serving millions of visitors annually, at
Purdue where he leads the impact analytics effort.
• NANCY MARON, MA
• Founder and Principal, BlueSky to BluePrint, a strategic research and consulting organization. She is author of several research reports and
guides on business strategy and sustainability including A Guide to the Best Revenue Models and Funding Sources for your Digital
Resources (2014), Sustaining the Digital Humanities: Host Institution Support Beyond the Start-up Phase (June 2014) and many case studies of
sustainable initiatives. She created and regularly leads workshops in sustainability and business strategy, including the Sustaining Digital Resources
course.
• JULIANA CASAVAN
• Entrepreneurial Programs Manager, The Foundry, Purdue University. Juliana provides educational and workshop opportunities for clients of the
Foundry, a nationally recognized leader in translation of research to market, with the primary workshop called LaunchBox. She has been
providing the LaunchBox program to faculty, staff, students and community members for over 4 years.
• SURESH MARRU, MS
• Suresh Marru is the deputy director of the Science Gateway Research Center at Indiana University and vice-president of the Apache Airavata
project. He is an avid advocate of applying meritocratic governance principles to open source communities and is a nominated Member of the
Apache Software Foundation. His research interest is to advance the deep and wide boundaries of computational and data sciences empowered by
Science Gateways.
• PAUL PARSONS, Ph.D.
• Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Graphics Technology, Purdue University. Dr. Parsons’ research is in the area of human-computer
interaction (HCI) with a focus on interaction design, visualization, and cognition. He is interested in designing interactive systems that are
useful, effective, and usable. He teaches several classes at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in the User Experience (UX) Design
program at Purdue University.
• SANDRA GESING, Ph.D.
• Research assistant professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering and computational scientist, Center for Research Computing,
University of Notre Dame. Sandra’s research focuses on science gateways, workflows and distributed computing and she has organized and
chaired dozens of international workshops and conferences. Additionally, she has perennial experience as project manager and system developer in
industry and is the founder of a start-up company.
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13. Extended Developer Support
• Help building new gateways
• Or portions of new gateways
• Dedicated support for months to a year
• Similar in structure to XSEDE ECSS program
• Different in that gateways can be built from the
ground up
• And can use any type of resource
• ACTION: Request services at
http://sciencegateways.org/services/gateway-
services-request-form/
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14. Scientific Software Collaborative
• Find software used to build gateways
• List your software
• Work with us to support gateways as an affiliate
• Find existing gateways
• Just use them
• Learn what they’re built with
• Converse with developers
• Find gateways used in curricula
• ACTION: Still in development, sign up for mailing list
to keep apprised of status
• http://sciencegateways.org/connect-with-us/
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15. Community Engagement and Exchange
• Goal is to be THE place for gateway-related information
• Building the community of gateway developers
• Blogs, jobs, case studies, gateways in the news, webinars, partner
program
• ACTION: help@sciencegateways.org to present on the webinar,
contribute a blog entry, etc
• Annual Gateways conference
• Interact with other developers
• Tutorials, presentations, posters, reception, open space discussions
• Student opportunities, travel support
• ACTION: Help organize, attend, participate
• Gateways 2017
• Oct 23-25, Ann Arbor
• Building gateway expertise on campuses
• ACTION: Follow us via mailing list or Twitter
(@sciencegateways)
• http://sciencegateways.org/connect-with-us/
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16. • Students
• Fellowships and internships
• Travel support
• Training
• Summer coding opportunities
• Young Professionals Network
• Workshops
• NOBBCHe (National Organization for the
Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and
Chemical Engineers)
• ADMI (Association of Computer/Information
Sciences and Engineering Departments at Minority
Institutions)
• Computational chemistry at Jackson State
• SEAgrid gateway at American Chemical Society
meeting (planned, March 2018)
• Faculty
• Gateways in the curricula
• Career tracks for gateway developers
• ACTION: Watch for opportunities for faculty
and students via the mailing list
• http://sciencegateways.org/connect-with-us/
Workforce Development
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17. Thank you!
• SGCI follow-up
• Mailing list for news and updates:
http://sciencegateways.org/connect-with-us/
• Ready to request our services?
http://sciencegateways.org/services/
gateway-services-request-form/
• Have a question? help@sciencegateways.org
• @sciencegateways on Twitter
• http://sciencegateways.org/linkedin
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