Track 2: Customized Multi-tier Assistance, Training, and Computational Help (MATCH) for End User ACCESS to CI

定制的多层协助、培训和计算帮助 (MATCH) 提供最终用户支持服务，作为高级网络基础设施协调生态系统：服务与支持 (ACCESS) 计划的一部分。过去几十年来，美国国家科学基金会 (NSF) 支持的计算网络基础设施 (CI) 在推动科学和工程方面取得了巨大成功。从生物信息学、计算化学和天体物理学等传统领域到文本解释、视觉艺术和其他人文学科等新领域，CI 的使用在研究中已经无处不在。这种转变不仅发生在主要机构的大型研究实验室中，而且越来越多地发生在较小的机构中，这些机构的研究人员也希望利用 CI 资源。随着这一成功，用户社区的构成和规模也发生了重大变化，所使用的底层计算、存储和网络平台得到了改进，研究人员和 CI 专业人员的沟通方法也发生了截然不同的变化。这些变化需要重新思考用户支持服务的作用及其提供方式。为了解决这个问题，MATCH 提出了一种实施用户支持服务的新模型，该模型将鼓励能够覆盖更广泛社区的经济高效、可扩展的支持。 MATCH 项目开发新的方法、内容、服务、技术和专业知识，使 NSF CI 用户更容易找到和利用有效开展研究所需的特定级别和类型的支持。通过这一战略，MATCH 项目扩大了 NSF CI 的覆盖范围和影响力，为研究计算和数据社区的传统成员和新成员提供服务。MATCH 方法包括三个主要主题：（1）利用现代信息交付系统来简化用户界面； (2) 利用社区专家开发培训材料和说明，可以显着缩短用户学习几种日益重要的 CI 计算技术的曲线； (3) 采用匹配服务来维护专家导师和学生学员的数据库，这些数据库可以与项目相匹配，以提供利用 ACCESS 资源所需的特定领域的专业知识。具体来说，MATCH 采用了新的 ACCESS MATCH 门户 (AMP)，该门户将作为最终用户获得指导支持和帮助的唯一前门。专家监控的问答平台将确保用户问题得到准确回答和及时解决，并且 Open OnDemand 和 Pegasus 等易于使用的用户界面将得到增强和改进，以进一步简化 CI 使用并在遇到问题时提供上下文定向帮助。该系统将社区专家与用户需求相匹配，以创建文档和其他培训材料，或提供个人互动，以满足 ACCESS 用户当前的现实需求。通过重组最终用户支持，MATCH 创建了一个能够扩展的多层次基础设施，以协助日益专业化的支持需求的不断发展的研究界，从而在科学和社会的前沿实现新发现。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Customized Multi-tier Assistance, Training, and Computational Help (MATCH) provides End User Support services as part of the Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support (ACCESS) program. NSF-supported computational cyberinfrastructure (CI) has been highly successful in advancing science and engineering over the last few decades. The use of CI has become ubiquitous in research, from traditional fields such as bioinformatics, computational chemistry and astrophysics, to new areas including text interpretation, visual arts and other humanities. This shift is not only happening in large research labs at major institutions, but also increasingly at smaller institutions where researchers are also looking to make use of CI resources. Along with that success, there have been significant changes to the makeup and size of the user community, improvements to the underlying compute, storage, and networking platforms used, and radically different methods by which researchers and CI professionals communicate. These changes require a rethinking of the role of user support services and how they are delivered. To address this, MATCH proposes a new model for implementing user support services that will encourage cost-effective, scalable support that can reach a broader community. The MATCH project develops new approaches, content, services, technologies, and expertise to make it easier for NSF CI users to find and utilize the specific level and type of support needed to effectively carry out their research. With this strategy, the MATCH project expands the reach and impact of NSF CI, serving both traditional and new members of the research computing and data community.The MATCH approach comprises three major themes: (1) leverage modern information delivery systems to simplify user interfaces; (2) leverage experts from the community to develop training materials and instructions that can dramatically reduce the user learning curve for several increasingly important CI computational techniques; and (3) employ a matchmaking service that will maintain a database of specialist mentors and student mentees that can be matched with projects to provide the domain-specific expertise needed to leverage ACCESS resources. Specifically, MATCH employs a new ACCESS MATCH Portal (AMP) that will serve as the single front door for end users to obtain guided support and assistance. Expert-monitored Q&A platforms will ensure user questions are accurately answered and addressed in a timely fashion, and easy-to use user interfaces such as Open OnDemand and Pegasus will be enhanced and improved to further simplify CI use and provide context directed help when problems are encountered. The system matches community experts with user needs to create documentation and other training materials or provides personal interactions that address the current real world needs of ACCESS users. By restructuring end user support, MATCH creates a multi-level infrastructure capable of scaling to assist a growing research community with increasingly specialized support needs, enabling new discoveries at the forefront of science and society.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.