CAREER: Interacting with Cyberinfrastructure in the Face of Changing Science

这项研究将开发一个框架，以了解包括网络基础设施（CI）的社会技术关系。 网络基础设施是由超级计算机和高速网络等技术支持的分布式组织。 科学网络基础设施或电子科学项目正在迅速增加，因为它们可以对能源、环境、健康和安全等世界上一些最重要的问题产生影响。网络基础设施的技术挑战已经如此苛刻，以至于项目往往没有时间反思如何在当前快速科学变革的状态下使用和创建网络基础设施，其中数据共享和多学科方法的必要性正在对学科边界施加压力。虽然汇集数据的能力使科学家能够回答任何一个研究人员或实验室都无法单独回答的问题，但大型数据库也承担着支持具有不同优先事项和要求的科学子领域的重大负担。该项目将使用民族志方法，包括参与者观察和半结构化访谈，以调查：科学家和工程师如何决定哪些网络基础设施资源（例如数据库和工具）使用和在什么情况下;在什么情况下科学家和工程师决定创建自己的资源;科学家和工程师如何在自己的实验室内混合学科实践;科学家和工程师何时采用混合身份（例如计算生物学家和生物信息学家）。本计画将对电脑辅助协同工作、科学技术研究、竞争情报研究等领域的研究，作出经验性与概念性的贡献。它将提供一个材料库，描述当地的关注如何塑造CI的使用以及替代当地资源的开发和使用。通过促进对电子科学如何依赖于技术和社会转型的更深入的理解，这项研究将刺激和支持未来电子科学研究的发展。该项目将通过创建与科学实践、培训和技术变革相关的变革类型，使网络基础设施用户和开发人员、供资机构和政策制定者受益。 教育部分将让学生亲自参与研究，包括开发研究工具，收集和分析数据以及撰写论文。从本科到博士后水平的不同学生，包括女性和少数民族，将获得实践技能以及接触与合作和电子科学相关的理论问题。

This research will develop a framework to understand the set of sociotechnical relationships that comprise cyberinfrastructure (CI). Cyberinfrastructures are distributed organizations supported by such technologies as supercomputers and high-speed networks. Scientific cyberinfrastructures, or eScience projects, are multiplying rapidly because they can be brought to bear on some of the world's most important problems in energy, the environment, health, and security. The technical challenges of cyberinfrastructure are already so demanding that projects often have little time to engage reflexively on how cyberinfrastructures are used and created in the current state of rapid scientific change in which the necessity of data sharing and multidisciplinary approaches is putting pressure on disciplinary boundaries. While the ability to pool data can enable scientists to answer questions that no single investigator or laboratory could answer individually, large-scale databases also bear the significant burden of supporting scientific sub-domains with different priorities and requirements. This project will use ethnographic methods, including participant-observation and semi-structured interviews, to investigate: How scientists and engineers decide which cyberinfrastructure resources (e.g. databases and tools) to use and under what circumstances; Under what circumstances do scientists and engineers decide to create their own resources; How are scientists and engineers mixing disciplinary practices within their own laboratories; When do scientists and engineers adopt hybrid identities (e.g. computational biologists and bioinformaticists). This project will make empirical and conceptual contributions to research in areas such as computer supported cooperative work, science and technology studies, and the study of CI. It will provide a corpus of material describing how local concerns shape the use of CIs and the development and use of alternative local resources. By contributing to a more sophisticated understanding of how eScience is dependent on both technical and social transformation, this research will stimulate and support the development of future eScience research. This project will benefit cyberinfrastructure users and developers, funding bodies and policy makers, by creating a typology of change related to scientific practice, training, and technological change. The education components will give students hands-on involvement in research including developing research instruments, collecting and analyzing data, and writing papers. Diverse students from undergraduate to postdoctoral level, including women and minorities, will emerge with practical skills as well as exposure to theoretical issues related to collaboration and eScience.