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

自定义多层协助、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：服务支持（ACCESS）计划的一部分。在过去的几十年里，NSF支持的计算网络基础设施（CI）在推进科学和工程方面取得了巨大成功。CI的使用在研究中已经变得无处不在，从生物信息学，计算化学和天体物理学等传统领域，到包括文本解释，视觉艺术和其他人文学科在内的新领域。这种转变不仅发生在主要机构的大型研究实验室，而且越来越多地发生在研究人员也希望利用CI资源的小型机构。沿着这一成功，用户社区的构成和规模发生了重大变化，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专业人员的沟通方式也发生了根本性的变化。这些变化要求重新思考用户支助服务的作用以及如何提供这些服务。为解决这一问题，MATCH提出了一种新的用户支持服务实施模式，该模式将鼓励提供具有成本效益的、可扩展的支持，以覆盖更广泛的社区。MATCH项目开发了新的方法、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项目扩展了NSF CI的范围和影响，为研究计算和数据社区的传统和新成员提供服务。MATCH方法包括三个主要主题：（1）利用现代信息传递系统简化用户界面;（二）利用社区的专家开发培训材料和说明，可以大大缩短用户的学习曲线，越来越重要的CI计算技术;以及（3）采用匹配服务，该服务将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采用了一个新的ACCESS MATCH门户（AMP），该门户将作为最终用户获得指导性支持和帮助的单一门户。专家监控的问答平台将确保用户的问题得到及时准确的回答和解决，易于使用的用户界面（如Open OnDemand和Pegasus）将得到增强和改进，以进一步简化CI的使用，并在遇到问题时提供上下文指导的帮助。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，或提供满足ACCESS用户当前真实的需求的个人互动。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，以帮助不断增长的研究社区提供日益专业化的支持需求，使科学和社会前沿的新发现成为可能。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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.