Workshop Sessions

W1: Introduction to Cyberinfrastructure I - Thursday, 1:30pm to 3:00pm
W2: Introduction to Cyberinfrastructure II - Thursday, 4:45pm to 6:15pm
W3: Are They Really Listening? Effective Presentations in Science Settings - Friday, 4:45pm to 6:15pm
W4: Fostering IT Career Resilience - Saturday, 10:30am to 12:00pm

W1: Introduction to Cyberinfrastructure I
W2: Introduction to Cyberinfrastructure II
Workshop Organizers: Donald Frederick, San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California at San Diego and Sandie Kappes, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Presenters: Ilkay Altintas, San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California at San Diego and Marlon Pierce, Indiana University

Cyberinfrastructure (CI) is the term that has been coined to characterize NSF's efforts to coordinate the convergence of information technology systems, tools and services to create a national infrastructure available to researchers and scientists in all areas of science. This effort promises to advance science and engineering and revolutionize how research is done, what can be done and who can do it. This workshop will provide an introduction to CI concepts, architectures, technology and ongoing projects.

Note: The series of presentations started in Introduction to Cyberinfrastructure I is continued in Introduction to Cyberinfrastructure II.

Donald Frederick, San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California at San Diego, frederik@sdsc.edu

Donald Frederick holds a degree in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a computational physicist with a special interest in HPC performance. For the past several years, he has been in charge of HPC Training at the San Diego Supercomputer Center.

Sandie Kappes, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, skappes@ncsa.uiuc.edu

Sandie Kappes is the training lead for the NCSA's Training and Documentation Division. She is responsible for developing and supporting programs that enhance NCSA's commitment to training and documentation with a focus on the users and potential users of NCSA's cyberinfrastructure capabilities. This involves collaborating with fellow NCSA researchers and partners to identify training needs, facilitate development of training materials and facilitate delivery of training. Sandie is also actively involved in development of NCSA's Web-based training environment, WebCT-HPC, used by NCSA to deliver Web-based training to the HPC community.

Ilkay Altintas, San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California at San Diego

Ilkay Altintas is a manager in the Scientific Workflow Automation Technologies Lab at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California, San Diego.

Marlon Pierce, Indiana University

Marlon Pierce holds a Ph.D. in computational condensed matter physics (Florida State, 1998). For the past five years he has worked on developing browser-based computational portals for Grid computing and Web service-based computing grids. Pierce is the principle investigator of the Open Grid Computing Environments, an NSF-funded project to develop standard computing portal components. His other research efforts include leading the design and implementation of QuakeSim, a Web services-based grid to support the distributed data and scientific applications used for earthquake modeling. Pierce is currently a senior postdoctoral research associate at the Community Grids Lab at Indiana University.

W3: Are They Really Listening? Effective Presentations in Science Settings
Workshop Organizer: Tiffani L. Williams, Texas A&M University

The communication of ideas is an important element of working in the scientific community. In addition to writing research papers, scientists are expected to orally present their work in various settings (i.e., conferences, classrooms, funding agencies). Most scientists work on very interesting problems. Yet, the beauty of their work is often inaccessible to an eager audience waiting to share the joy of understanding the solution to a challenging problem. The communication drift lies in the speaker ignoring their audience. Although often this is a well-known general piece of advice for public speaking, it is rarely followed.

This workshop is intended to help participants (especially students) capture the attention of their audience for the duration of the presentation. The attendees will learn that they must forget their specialized knowledge in order to reach their audience. The workshop will present a number of additional techniques (i.e., presentation organization, designing visual aids, etc.) needed for a successful presentation. Attendees can expect to gain an arsenal of tools that can be used immediately in their next presentation. Effective scientific presentations have much in common with good technical writing. Thus, the workshop will address the commonality of delivering good presentations and writing effectively.

Tiffani L. Williams, Texas A&M University, tlw@cs.tamu.edu

Tiffani L. Williams is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Texas A&M University. During the 2004-2005 academic year, she was the Edward, Frances, and Shirley B. Daniels Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard University. She earned her B.S. in computer science from Marquette University and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Central Florida. Afterward, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of New Mexico. Her honors include a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a McKnight Doctoral Fellowship. Her research interests are in the areas of bioinformatics and high-performance computing.

W4: Fostering IT Career Resilience
Workshop Organizers: Wanda J. Smith and France Belanger, Virginia Tech

Too few computing departments consider the wellbeing of their students and professionals. For the most part, they expect their students and professionals to struggle through on hope and hard work. This model, when controlled, can create healthy pressure as well as promote motivation and creativity. Yet, when uncontrolled or ignored, this "failure is not an option" model can generate a variety of negative computing pressures (stressors). The emotional results of these stressors are chronic anxiety, insomnia, depression, low self esteem, etc. Inevitably, there is a noticeable detrimental effect on both mental and physical wellbeing and therefore on performance and retention. This is especially true for professionals and students of color in computing.

Research has revealed that cross-cultural stressors - racial tension, discrimination, and harassment - influence African American degree attainment in IT related fields. IT career-resilient individuals (i.e., individuals who effectively manage academic and professional IT stressors) are more likely than non-resilient individuals to persist with learning, even when the environment is not conducive to such activity.

The workshop will introduce participants to a module that is designed to foster IT career resilience.

Wanda J. Smith, Virginia Tech, wjsmith@vt.edu

Dr. Wanda J. Smith received her Ph.D. in OB and HRM from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a partner in H&S Enterprises, a firm comprising business skills, system and support experts specializing in Windows NT training, network integration and Internet solutions. She conducts consultant skills training, as well as technology diffusion, and organizational change seminars in the public and private sectors. Dr. Smith is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Management at Virginia Tech and serves as Principal Investigator for the NSF-funded PACE Project.

France Belanger, Virginia Tech, belanger@vt.edu

Dr. France Belanger received her Ph.D. in Information Systems and Decision Sciences from the University of South Florida in 1997. Prior to beginning her academic career, Dr. Belanger worked in the field of IT and now serves as the Director for the Center of Global E-Commerce at Virginia Tech. She has conducted research funded by industries and agencies such as PriceWaterhouse Coopers and the U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Belanger is currently an associate professor in the Department of Accounting and Information Sciences at Virginia Tech and the co-principal investigator for the NSF-funded PACE Project.