This panel session will gather community recommendations on strategies for preparing the workforce to advance the capabilities, capacities and utilization of cyberinfrastructure with an emphasis on Computational and Data-enabled Science and Engineering (CDS&E), Data Science and related areas. The panel members will pose challenges and controversial ideas to stimulate audience participation to identify methods and approaches the community should pursue in support of advancing research, discovery, and scholarly studies through the usage of computational and data-enabled tools, resources, and methods. The XSEDE16 audience will be challenged to contribute their suggestions both during and after the session via social media and discussion forums. The audience suggestions will be incorporated into a report that will be publicly disseminated by the middle of 2017.
There are many reports that have documented the need to prepare a diverse workforce able to advance research, discovery, scholarly studies and economic competitiveness via CI. The White House issued an Executive Order establishing the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI) to coordinate research, development, and deployment strategies, to draw on the strengths of departments and agencies to move the US federal government into a position that sharpens, develops, and streamlines a wide range of new 21st century applications. The NSCI goals include (a) advancing core technologies to solve difficult computational problems and (b) fostering increased use of the new capabilities in the public and private sectors. Workforce development is a key element of this initiative.
XSEDE and the NSF funded Blue Waters project, along with other projects and organizations are working to advance workforce development. They place an emphasis on:
* increasing formal and informal education and training opportunities in Cyberinfrastructure (CI), Computational and Data-enabled Science and Engineering (CDS&E), Data Science and related capabilities;
* expanding the workforce in these areas by fostering the identification, recruitment and cultivation of CI, CDS&E and Data Science practitioners, and of faculty who educate these practitioners;
* developing approaches to increase the diversity of the CI, CDS&E and Data Science workforce.
The goal of the panel discussions is to identify recommendations that will help advance discovery and scholarly studies via the applications of computational and data-enabled tools, resources, and methods.
This panel is intended to spark dialogue among the XSEDE16 participants on strategies that have potential to enhance the preparation of the workforce. The panel members will have 10 minutes each to present diverse viewpoints from a variety of community perspectives.
Following the panel presentations, a series of challenging questions will be posed to the audience to promote discussions to identify possible solutions. The moderator will foster discussions among the audience and will be proactive in ensuring that the audience is as engaged as the panel in the discussions. The moderator will guide the group towards making recommendations for enhancing workforce development.
The audience will be encouraged to provide oral comments and to provide written comments using polling software that everyone will be able to observe in real time, thus giving all attendees a voice in the discussion and a chance to explore topics not previously raised by the panel. The audience members will also be encouraged to submit written suggestions after the conference.
The panel organizers will provide a forum for open discussion and contributions of ideas during and after the Conference. The organizers will post drafts of recommendations throughout the development process, and the final set of recommendations will be posted by the middle of 2017.
Emcee - Henry Neeman, University of Oklahoma
Panel Members:
* Linda Akli, Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) will represent the needs of the Diversity Forum
* John Towns, NCSA, University of Illinois will provide a CIO’s perspective
* John Mosher, Oklahoma Innovation Institute will provide a Champion’s perspective
* Thomas Hauser, University of Colorado, Boulder
* Nathan Weeks, USDA-ARS Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research Unit, Iowa State University
