Conference: Support for MERIF Workshop 2023

Grants and Contracts Details

Description

The NSF-sponsored midscale infrastructure projects aim to develop advanced research facilities and provide broad access to research infrastructure to the community. They will support new high-quality science and engineering research and help solve the most pressing scientific and societal problems of the day. These infrastructures enable a high degree of documented experimental reproducibility and provide rapid recoverability of infrastructure resources for reuse by multiple experiments. They provide opportunities to train researchers in the development, design, construction, and effective use of cutting-edge infrastructure. Over the years, NSF has funded multiple midscale infrastructure projects, which are in different stages of their life cycles. Some earlier funded projects (CloudLab, Chameleon, Colosseum) are relatively mature with a stable user base, eager to explore how to do cross-platform experimentation with newer projects. Other available platforms (FABRIC, SAGE, COSMOS, POWDER, AERPAW) have relatively newer components in the infrastructure and strive to expand user base. More recently funded projects (EduceLab, ARA, Internet online observatory) can definitely benefit from experience and lessons learned from other projects to avoid traps. The Midscale Experimental Research Infrastructure Forum (MERIF) plans to hold a MERIF Workshop on May 22-24, 2023 in Boston, to bring together research infrastructure providers and users to share experience and improve infrastructure to support science and engineering research. The workshop is intended to help recruit additional researchers who can make highest and best use of NSF’s midscale research infrastructure facilities through raising community awareness, reducing barriers to use, sharing best practices, and facilitating cross-facility research. In addition, it helps spot research infrastructure gaps at the frontiers of CISE research areas and recommends solutions, both within computer science itself and on an interdisciplinary basis. The workshop will provide community-wide updates from the NSF-sponsored midscale research facilities, provide “jump-right-in” hands-on tutorials to familiarize students and researchers with the capabilities of the midscale facilities, and feature demonstrations and success stories from current users of these facilities. We expect that everyone will learn from everyone else, new opportunities will be discovered, and great ideas will be shared and improved upon. This workshop will expand diversity and student training that an individual midscale research infrastructure project cannot achieve. This project will provide travel support to students, faculty and researchers with diverse backgrounds to make their participation in the workshop possible. Intellectual Merit: The NSF-sponsored midscale research facilities are central engines to power the research of an increasingly diverse and productive set of academic and industry researchers. This workshop is expected to: 1) provide an up-to-date understanding of the status and trajectory of NSF-sponsored midscale research infrastructure projects; 2) enable developers of these facilities to share best practices and lessons learned and explore the opportunity of cross-platform federation; 3) bring together communities of researchers who share ideas, experimental results, and foster scientific and engineering collaboration; and 4) raise community awareness of the availability of a wide variety of midscale research infrastructures, and reduce barriers to use them by a series of tutorials and demos. Broader Impacts: This workshop is of broad interests across infrastructure developers and operators, computer science and domain researchers, and students interested in experimental research. It will help shape the future development of midscale infrastructures, spot research infrastructure gaps at the frontiers of CISE research areas, and recommend solutions. Students with diverse backgrounds will participate in the workshop and acquire insightful knowledge to influence their future research visions. 1
StatusActive
Effective start/end date5/15/234/30/25

Funding

  • National Science Foundation: $99,605.00

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