FDSS: Faculty and Curricular Development at the Solar-stellar Informatics Cluster of Georgia State University

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The goal of this 5-year Faculty Development in the Space Sciences (FDSS) project is to enable a new tenure track faculty position in the interdisciplinary Solar-Stellar Informatics (SSI) Cluster between the Departments of Physics & Astronomy and Computer Science at the Georgia State University (GSU). The goal is to attract a solar physicist with a strong background in numerical simulation of the magnetic field of the corona and heliosphere, plus an expertise in working with Big Data and Machine Learning, in order to leverage the SSI Cluster's effort in integrating machine learning and numerical simulation for the purpose of forecasting solar activity and space weather. The fast growing and ambitious SSI Cluster at the GSU provides a collaborative, results oriented, environment, which has attracted talented and diverse faculty, as well as a large number of outstanding and highly motivated graduate students. The GSU expects the new hire to have the desire to teach, mentor, and develop curriculum in heliophysics for a diverse student body within an innovative and multi-cultural educational environment. The assistant professor will join the faculty of the Department of Physics & Astronomy. Comprehensive mentoring and rigorous assessment of the junior faculty member's research and educational activities, according to established procedures in the College of Arts and Sciences, will foster the success of this initiative, culminating in the achievement of tenure at the end of the 5-year FDSS program. The SSI Cluster at the GSU has an established expertise in applying cutting-edge Big Data and Machine Learning techniques applied to the forecasting of solar flares and eruptions. One of the research goals of this 5-year FDSS program is to fully integrate its data analytics approach with sophisticated numerical simulation, where the two approaches synergistically increase the quality and efficiency of space weather forecasts, thereby leading to deeper understanding of the physical processes involved. The SSI Cluster already has a junior faculty member with expertise in global simulations of the solar/stellar interior, and studies of astrophysical turbulence and energetic particles. Adding to that an expert in simulating the magnetic field evolution of the solar corona and heliosphere will help the SSI Cluster achieve its critical mass of faculty members. The research of the SSI Cluster, purposely, has broader impacts in terms of mitigating the impact of natural disasters through timely forecasts. Integrating data analytics with numerical simulation has great promise for improving the quality and timeliness of solar storm prediction with the potential of saving the U.S. and other nations enormous amounts of financial resources through mitigation measures. In addition, the highly diverse nature of the GSU student body, the GSU's success in graduating minorities, and, likewise, the ethnic diversity and relative gender balance of the SSI Cluster and its student success, contribute to the expansion of a diverse and gender balanced STEM workforce. Continued SSI Cluster's growth stimulated by the faculty hire will further enhance this. The research and EPO agenda of this 5-year FDSS project supports the Strategic Goals of the AGS Division in discovery, learning, diversity, and interdisciplinary research.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.