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

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

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.