CREST Phase II: Cyber-ShARE Center of Excellence

得克萨斯大学埃尔帕索分校(UTEP)于2007年成立了Cyber-Share(用于共享资源以推进研究和教育的网络基础设施)英才中心，其使命是通过支持信息交流和整合以及协作跨学科研究的网络基础设施来促进教育和研究。该中心进行研究并培养一支能够解决社会面临的一些最具挑战性的问题的劳动力队伍。该中心的跨学科研究通过促进共享知识、概念、方法和观点的能力，产生了支持学术跨学科合作的工具和方法。作为协作科学和工程研究的国家领先者，该中心开发和应用了基于团队的、合作学习、跨学科团队合作和知识整合的模式。网络基础设施(CI)的进步领域包括数据管理、数据分析和支持协作的虚拟组织。特别是，CI研究侧重于科学家记录数据收集和产品开发的能力，通过利用出处和其他关键信息增强结果来共享和重复使用科学成果。中心的横向专业知识是在协作和协作环境中，基于语义的知识合成和表示方法(本体论和出处)，以及在综合分析中传播不确定性。这一专门知识将超越的子项目如下：(1)知识表示、协商和整合：通过语义将人和机器的知识模型联系起来(2)利用数字基础设施促进对生态系统过程的理解(3)为开发地球结构的3-D模型进行综合分析Cyber-Share在气候变化对环境的影响分析和地球结构建模方面的研究通过传播和信息支持的中心的跨学科方法而取得进展。我们的环境科学小组正在通过创新的多尺度数据收集和分析，以及最大限度地减少误差传播和确保数据质量的新方法，来促进对极端沙漠和北极环境中碳通量的理解。我们的地球物理研究小组正在通过数据集成和模型融合的计算方法开发更准确的里奥格兰德裂谷系统模型。该中心开发了新的工具，使研究人员能够更有效地分析这些项目和全国各地通过环境和地震传感器网络收集的大量数据。传感器数据对于了解短期和长期全球变化至关重要，有助于更好地了解气候变化对水和能源的影响，以及地球结构对地震风险的影响。在下一阶段的资助中，网络共享中心将继续在传播与信息部门的支持下，在环境科学和地球科学领域开展创新的、协同的STEM研究。作为三个子项目的一部分，我们要研究的大量研究问题如下：我们如何在先进的网络基础设施的推动下，为跨学科研究创建一个机器可理解的个体心理模型和集成概念框架？在沙漠和北极陆地生态系统中，什么因素控制着碳、水和能量的陆地-大气交换，以及在什么空间和时间尺度上？如何利用语义网技术来加强开放获取的环境数据共享、发现、检索、集成、分析和可视化？例如，里约格兰德裂谷的演变是什么，这与其他活动裂谷有什么关系？东非裂谷系统？科学家能否理解、相信并接受对西南(和其他地区)构造演化的新见解，这些见解是通过开发基于CI和CI的应用程序而产生的，这些应用程序可以无缝地整合和优化融合现有的信息源？该中心对于扩大对跨学科、具有CI知识的公民的培训和教育至关重要，其中包括获得高级学位并代表21世纪人口结构的STEM学生。与地质学、环境和计算机科学研究生的全国平均水平(NSF 2008)相比，网络共享学生中西班牙裔学生占82.7%，而全国平均水平为4.7%，女性学生占36.5%，而全国平均水平为30.8%。该中心的目标是在第二阶段扩大代表不足群体的公民的参与程度。该中心将扩大网络共享合作网络，以包括其他主要的CI项目、国际合作者和行业合作伙伴。

The Cyber-ShARE ("Cyberinfrastructure for Sharing resources to Advance Research and Education") Center of Excellence at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) was established in 2007 with a mission to advance education and research through cyberinfrastructures that support information exchange and integration, as well as collaborative interdisciplinary research. The Center conducts research and prepares a workforce that can tackle some of the most challenging problems confronting society. The interdisciplinary research at the Center has resulted in tools and approaches that support scholarly interdisciplinary collaboration by facilitating the ability to share knowledge, concepts, approaches, and perspectives. As national leaders in the study of collaborative science and engineering, the Center has developed and applied models of team-based, cooperative learning, interdisciplinary teamwork, and knowledge integration. Areas of advancement in cyberinfrastructure (CI) have been in data management, data analysis, and virtual organizations in support of collaboration. In particular, CI research has focused on scientists' ability to document data collection and product development in ways that enable sharing and reuse of scientific results by enhancing results with provenance and other critical information.The Center's crosscutting expertise is in collaboration and collaborative environments, semantic-based approaches to knowledge synthesis and representation (ontologies and provenance), and propagation of uncertainty in integrated analyses. The subprojects through which this expertise will transcend are as follows:(1) Knowledge Representation, Negotiation and Integration: Linking Human and Machine Knowledge Models through Semantics(2) Advancing Understanding of Ecosystem Processes Using Cyberinfrastructure(3) Integrated Analysis for Development of 3-D Models of Earth StructureCyber-ShARE's research in analysis of climate change impacts on the environment and the modeling of Earth's structure has advanced through the Center's interdisciplinary approaches supported by CI. Our environmental science group is advancing understanding of carbon flux in extreme desert and arctic environments through innovative multi-scale data collection and analysis, along with novel methods for minimizing error propagation and ensuring data quality. Our geophysics research group is developing more accurate models of the Rio Grande Rift System through computational approaches to data integration and model fusion. The Center has developed novel tools that allow researchers to more effectively analyze the large amounts of data being collected through environmental and seismic sensor networks in these projects and around our nation. Sensor data are critical for understanding short and long term global change, enabling better understanding of the effects of climate change on water and energy, and the effects of earth structure on earthquake risk. In the next phase of funding, the Cyber-ShARE Center will continue to conduct innovative, synergistic STEM research supported by CI in the areas of environmental science and geosciences. Among a large number of research questions to be investigated as part of the three subprojects are the following: How can we create a machine understandable representation of individual mental models and integrated conceptual frameworks for interdisciplinary research, facilitated by advanced cyber-infrastructure?What factors control land-atmosphere exchange of carbon, water and energy in desert and arctic terrestrial ecosystems and over what spatial and time scales?How can Semantic Web technologies be used to enhance open access environmental data sharing, discovery, retrieval, integration, analysis, and visualization?What is the evolution of the Rio Grande Rift and how does this relate to other active rifts, for example, the East Africa Rift System?Can scientists understand, believe and accept new insights in the tectonic evolution of the southwest (and other regions) that were produced through the development of CI and CI-based applications that can seamlessly integrate and optimally fuse existing information sources?The Center is critical to broadening training and education of interdisciplinary, CI-knowledgeable citizens, including STEM students who receive advanced degrees and represent the 21st century demographics. Compared to the national averages for graduate students in geology and environmental and computer science (NSF 2008), Cyber-ShARE students are 82.7% Hispanic while the national average is 4.7%, and 36.5% female while the national average is 30.8%. The Center aims to reach even higher levels of involvement of citizens from underrepresented groups during Phase II. The Center will extend the network of Cyber-ShARE collaborations to include other major CI projects, international collaborators, and industry partners.