Collaborative Research: Cyberinfrastructure for Transformational Scientific Discovery in Arkansas and West Virginia (CI TRAIN)

阿肯色大学EPS-0918970，艾米·W·阿彭，链接到EPS-0918949(西弗吉尼亚州高等教育政策委员会)合作研究：阿肯色州和西弗吉尼亚州变革性科学发现的网络基础设施(CI-TRAIN)该奖项由2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法第111-5)资助。阿肯色州(AR)和西弗吉尼亚州(WV)之间的合作伙伴关系建立在地球科学、虚拟环境和计算科学共同研究的基础上，同时利用两个州的技术专长：WV利用共享高性能计算资源的部署和运营方面的专业知识，而AR利用可视化和建模方面的专业知识。该联盟寻求创建一个具有全国竞争力的计算和可视化环境；在每个合作机构提供可视化显示设备；并采购一套用于数据捕获和内容创建的硬件和软件，以便能够在几个科学和工程领域开展广泛的研究和教育活动。该联盟寻求建立所需的网络基础设施，以推进几个科学领域的知识前沿，并转变信息技术服务，以促进发现和创新。智力优势结合起来，对CI资源的访问将使CI-Train联盟在多个领域进行变革性研究。之所以选择这些领域，是因为它们对参与司法管辖区的重要性，其中包括多尺度地球测量学和地球科学；可扩展的虚拟世界技术；纳米科学，包括低维多铁性和纳米晶体材料缺陷的原子模拟；实时图像引导手术；发现纳米结构材料中的新物理和现象；植物次生细胞壁重建；近场扫描光学显微镜；以及可应用于TeraGrid资源的大型集群的性能模型。虽然这些主题跨越了非常不同的学科，但它们都有许多共同的元素，即非常大的数据集、复杂的计算系统和交互式可视化需求。每个领域都提供了智力优势。例如，地球测量学领域的团队试图创造一个？智能世界？定义为视觉沉浸式环境，包含丰富的真实世界内容和对真实世界事件的实时响应，为镜像世界应用程序带来更好的临场感，为虚拟世界应用程序带来更好的地域感和时间感。研究人员试图利用这种？智能世界？为了克服虚拟环境阻碍对空气和水(以及其他流体)进行逼真建模的缺点。广泛影响通过能够访问TeraGrid和其他由美国国家科学基金会资助的网络基础设施资源，该联盟的参与者S将获得当地无法获得的科学和工程研究所需的计算支持。对计算基础设施的访问将使人们能够深入了解纳米结构，这些结构反过来可以用来指导执行器和传感器等设备的设计和改进。由此产生的可视化、地学和虚拟世界研究产品将为管理人员、规划者、应急响应人员和其他人员提供一个强大的环境，以快速规划和管理社区、紧急情况和其他复杂流程。此外，CI-TRAIN将测试开发实时图像引导手术的方法，这种手术将允许安全地清除人体内任何地方的实体肿瘤。最后，探索植物细胞壁的三维结构的创新研究将有助于理解如何以经济高效的方式回收细胞壁的成分，用于生物产品开发。

EPS-0918970, University of Arkansas, Amy W. Apon, linked to EPS-0918949 (WV Higher Education Policy Commission) Collaborative Research: Cyberinfrastructure for Transformational Scientific Discovery in Arkansas and West Virginia (CI-Train)This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The partnership between Arkansas (AR) and West Virginia (WV) builds on common research in geosciences, virtual environments, and computational sciences while leveraging technical expertise within the two states: WV leverages expertise in the deployment and operation of shared high performance computing resources while AR leverages expertise in visualization and modeling. This consortium seeks to create a nationally competitive computation and visualization environment; to provide visualization display devices at each partnering institution; and to procure a suite of hardware and software for data capture and content creation that can enable a broad range of research and education activities across several science and engineering domains. The consortium seeks to build the needed cyberinfrastructure to advance the frontiers of knowledge in several scientific domains, and to transform information technology services for enabling discovery and innovation. Intellectual MeritTaken together, access to CI resources will enable transformative research in a number of domain areas across the CI-TRAIN consortium. The areas are chosen because of their importance to the participating jurisdictions and include multi-scale geomatics and geosciences; scalable virtual world technology; nanoscience, including low-dimensional multiferroics and atomistic simulation of defects in nanocrystalline materials; real-time image guided surgery; discovering new physics and phenomena in nanostructured materials; plant secondary cell wall reconstruction; near field scanning optical microscopy; and performance models of large scale clusters that can be applied to TeraGrid resources. Although the topics span vastly different disciplines, they all share a number of common elements, namely, very large data sets, complex computational systems, and interactive visualization needs.Each domain area provides intellectual merit. For example, the geomatics area team seeks to create a ?smart world? defined as a visually immersive environment rich with real-world content and real-time responses to real-world events, bringing a better sense of presence to mirror world applications and a better sense of place and time to virtual world applications. The researchers seek to use this ?smart world? to overcome shortcomings of virtual environments that inhibit realistic modeling of air and water (and other fluids).Broader ImpactsThrough enabling access to the TeraGrid and other national NSF-funded cyberinfrastructure resources, the consortium?s participants will gain the needed computational support for science and engineering research not available locally. Access to computational infrastructures will enable insights into nanostructures that can in turn be used to guide the design and improvement of devices such as actuators and sensors. The resulting research products in visualizations, geosciences, and virtual world will provide a powerful environment for managers, planners, emergency response personnel, and others to quickly plan and manage communities, emergencies, and other complex processes. In addition, CI-TRAIN will be a tested for the development of approaches to real-time image-guided surgery that will allow safe obliteration of solid tumors anywhere in the human body. Finally, innovative studies that explore the 3-D structures of plant cell walls will assist in understanding how to cost effectively recover components of the cell wall for use in bio-based product development.