# Presentation: 651236

## CyberInfrastructure – National Infrastructure to Transform Engineering Research and Education

**ENG Town Meeting On Cyberinfrastructure**
**October 29, 2003**

**Notes:**
CyberInfrastructure:Revolutionizing Science & Engineering
Peter A. Freeman
NSF Assistant Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE)

CENIC 2003

May 9, 2003

## Creating a National Infrastructure

- Traditional infrastructures provide a platform for
- _Moving_ resources from production site to where usage is
- _Sharing_ of scarce or intermittently-needed resources
- Helping people _access_ distant people, activities, resources
- Cyberinfrastructure will provide an Internet-based platform for locating and accessing
- Information
- Specialized resources
- Collaborators and experts

## Infrastructure Is More Than Components

***Infrastructure Is More Than Components***

- _Integration_ is what turns components into an infrastructure

| CyberInfrastructure isn’t... | Unless it also involves... |
| --- | --- |
| Individual components  (e.g., devices that collect data, data mining as a science, or big computing resources) | Playing an integrative role in a larger system |
| Sharing distributed data across research groups or disciplines | Transforming data into meaningful information |
| Data and resources that are collected, processed, and used by a community | Distributing collection, storage and access across multiple locations and communities |

## Infrastructure Enables Change

- CI’s goal:  Develop revolutionary infrastructure that empowers intellectual revolutions

**Science is “a series of peaceful interludes**
**punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions**
**. . .[in which] . . . one conceptual world view**
**is replaced by another.”**
- 	– Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

## Infrastructure Is an Evolutionary Process

- _Trailblazer_ phase is unstructured and individual
- Possible paths sought in new territory
- _Pioneer_ phase follows once benefits are seen
- Initial roads and services established
- Initial infrastructure then enables _settler_ phase
- Infrastructure fine-tuned through steady use

## Phases Involve Different Personalities

- [“Settlers” are ultimate target of CI – change way research & education are conducted]
- Settlers view infrastructure as a means to other things
- Often “trailblaze” in other domains
- Pioneers want to maximize infrastructure effectiveness
- Fun is in balancing resources and constraints
- Trailblazers are motivated by the unknown
- Glory is in being first – may never yield useful infrastructure
- Risk tolerance varies dramatically
- Settlers want infrastructure to be low-risk (want to take their risks in other arenas)
- Pioneers tolerate risk and proactively try to reduce it
- Trailblazers embrace it – risk is the whole point!

## ENG’s Role in CyberInfrastructure

- Concept is inevitable – whether the name catches on or not
- Some communities are doing it for themselves
- ENG is already investing heavily
- “Can’t we just count on industry to do it for us?”
- Not likely to be right solution for research and education
- ENG is already investing ...
- My recommendation to ENG
- Move ahead (whether “CI” is sanctioned/budgeted or not)
- Make investments strategically – where they are likely to
- Leverage other investments
- Yield biggest bang-for-the-buck
- Most change how research & education are conducted

## Can We Build Something We Don’t Understand?

## ENG Can Target Its Investments

- Trailblazer projects
- This is what CI’s “enabling research” is all about
- You already know how to find and nurture them
- Encourage them to address broad community needs
- Settler projects
- Currently ENG’s “primary constituency” (people who could use CI as platform for research or education)
- Encourage them to develop policies/standards for sharing resources
- Encourage them to adopt new CI earlier and more creatively

## ENG Can Target Its Investments

- Pioneer projects _aren’t_ normal NSF projects
- Goal is construction of reliable, usable infrastructure

- Should leverage trailblazer discoveries that
- Are desirable and useful to broad communities
- Have potential for robust implementation
- PIs need to understand both communities
- Trailblazers (to leverage best groundwork)
- Settlers (to build services they’ll really use)

- NSF should be the “cavalry”
- Some projects will need to be bailed out
- Key is to minimize “losses” ( = unused infrastructure)

## ENG Targets Can Evolve over Time

- 0%

- 20%

- 40%

- 60%

- 80%

- 100%

**Enabling research**

**Physical assets, Domain-specific Software, Community-building and Education**

**Functional systems eng, Domain-neutral software, Soc/Indus/Tech dimensions**

**Trailblazer oriented**

**Settler oriented**

**Pioneer oriented**

- Current funding reflects emphasis on trailblazers and settlers
- Needs to evolve to encourage pioneers
- Better understand system architecture, evaluation, and optimization of CI
- Develop domain-neutral, robust, and interoperable software
- Understand implications of CI for human activities

- Current

## Five Keys to Successful Infrastructure

- Enable things people can’t possibly do on their own
- Better/faster isn’t enough to motivate change
- Include something people already need – and want
- Can’t spark a revolution unless people care
- Must meet recognized need, in a way that users like
- Regularly step back, analyze, assess, and adjust
- Infrastructure rarely right at first try (leverage early experiences)
- Make reliability a cornerstone of the system
- Settlers won’t accept anything less (CI is ultimately for them)
- Must be sold to stakeholders as well as “stockholders”
- Infrastructure doesn’t fit normal model of academic research
- Stakeholders – like funding sources – must be convinced that CI is essential to future breakthroughs

## Conclusions

- CI is inevitable – but NSF must be proactive to ensure results suit scientific community
- “Pioneering phase” that develops lasting infrastructure is not a traditional NSF target

- Fostering CI will require change in ENG funding priorities
- By encouraging pioneers, ENG can
- Leverage its own tralblazing results
- Better support its own settler efforts
- Build core infrastructure that can change the nature of scientific research and education