Collaborative Research: CI-Team Demonstration: Towards a Culture of Computational Science

网络基础设施的快速发展正在彻底改变科学和工程的实践。随着计算机的能力和范围的增长，计算科学已经成为科学的第三个分支，补充了分析理论和实验。在许多领域，特别是工程学科、物理和生物科学，必须解决的问题是如此复杂，以至于计算的重要性已经超过了纯粹的分析理论。尽管该领域的重要性和对从业者的需求都在增长，但学术机构的反应却很慢。在大多数学院和大学里，几乎没有计算机科学的课程。总统信息技术咨询委员会（PITAC）最近发表的报告《计算科学：确保美国的竞争力》（PITAC 2006）明确了这一点的重要性。报告特别指出，现有的教育基础设施无法满足这一需求，并强调了大学未能适应学生（包括研究生和本科生）对计算学科教育的新需求。该报告发出了一个非常具体的呼吁：大学早就该采取行动了。他们必须检查他们的教育实践和组织结构，以提供和奖励跨学科和合作的研究和教育。迫切需要新的结构、计划和制度激励（PITAC 2006）。学术机构在培养学生和鼓励教师学习新方法方面的失败，可能会危及美国在快速变化的世界中的科学领导地位和经济竞争力。该项目将开发重要的组成部分，包括弗吉尼亚大学“改变文化”的第一步，同时创建一个可扩展、可持续和可导出的战略。我们的解决方案包括多管齐下的策略，包括正式的课程，与教师的联系，以及与附近机构的合作，如Sweet Briar学院（一所女子学校），以便为大学社区的广大受众提供使用计算工具和基础设施的实践经验。更广泛的影响这个项目将影响弗吉尼亚大学和其他地方的科学和工程文化。它将通过促进跨学科计算科学文化的改变，以及通过培训我们的学生、研究科学家和教师掌握当代计算技术和新兴网络基础设施的使用，来提高弗吉尼亚大学的研究质量。我们的合作机构以及下游的公司和大学都将经历类似的变化。下游效应，更好的研究和产品开发，将提高美国的经济竞争力。

Rapid developments in cyberinfrastructure are revolutionizing the practice of science and engineering. As the power and reach of computers has grown, computational science has emerged as the third branch of science, complementing analytical theory and experiment. In many fields, especially engineering disciplines and physical and biological sciences, the problems that must be solved are so complex that computation has overtaken pure analytic theory in importance. Despite the growth in importance of the field and in demand for practitioners, academic institutions have been slow to react. At most colleges and universities there is little in the way of a curriculum in computational science. The significance of this was made clear in the recently published report of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC), "Computational Science: Ensuring America's Competitiveness" (PITAC 2006). The report specifically noted that the existing educational infrastructure could not meet this need and highlighted the failure of universities to adapt to the new needs of students, both graduate and undergraduate, for education in computational disciplines. The report issued a very specific call: It is past time for universities to take action. They must examine their educational practices and organizational structures to provide and reward interdisciplinary and collaborative research and education. New structures, programs, and institutional incentives are urgently required (PITAC 2006).The failure of academic institutions to prepare students and to encourage their faculty to learn new approaches threatens to compromise U.S. scientific leadership and economic competitiveness in a rapidly changing world. This project will develop essential components comprising a first step toward "changing the culture" at the University of Virginia, while creating a strategy that will be extensible, sustainable, and exportable. Our solution consists of a multi-pronged strategy including formal coursework, outreach to faculty, and collaboration with nearby institutions such as Sweet Briar College (an all women's school) so as to provide practical experience in the use of computational tools and infrastructure to a wide audience in the university community. Broader ImpactThis project will affect both the culture of science and engineering at UVA and beyond. It will improve the quality of research at Virginia by fostering a change in culture towards inter-disciplinary computational science and by training our students, research scientists, and faculty in contemporary computational techniques and the use of the emerging cyberinfrastructure. A similar change will be experienced both by our partner institutions and by the companies and universities downstream. The downstream effects, better research and product development, will improve US economic competitiveness.