MICDE Seminar: “Cyberinfrastructure for Research,” Craig Stewart, Indiana University — Oct. 21

Craig Stewart, Associate Dean of Research Technologies and Executive Director of the Pervasive Technology Institute at Indiana University will speak on the U-M campus. Title: Cyberinfrastructure for Research: from campus growth to national trends and new tools Time: 4 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 21 Location: 1010 Herbert Dow Building, 2300 Haywood St., North Campus Abstract: Three trends stand out starkly as regards cyberinfrastructure (CI) trends within the higher education community of the US:

• the growth in demand for CI by researchers across the US far surpasses the ability of the federal government to meet that demand with federally-funded systems
• the pervasiveness of data being “born digital” creates new opportunities for research, scholarship, and discovery.
• We are at a local maximum in terms of diversity and uncertainty as regards the future of advanced research IT facilities

Campus-based cyberinfrastructure is one of few options that exist to bridge the gap between availability of federally-funded, nationally accessible resources and the needs for research CI resources felt by academic researchers in the US. But for the first time in many years, (Intel or AMD) + nVidia is no longer a bet that is sure to seem right in five years. What is a campus – already pinched by needs for funds for all manner of other things – to do when asked to invest in CI when there is such a diversity of needs that call for specific architectures – GPUs, FPGZs, “big data”/mapreduce workflows, cloud architectures, ARM processors. This talk will consist of three components – a bit of history on how Indiana University has negotiated the path to have a first rate campus cyberinfrastructure; an overview of the many new and diverse resources available via EXSEDE (the eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment), including Jetstream (Cloud), Bridges (heterogeneous cluster featuring large memory), Comet (cluster), and Wrangler (data storage and data analytics); ad some observations on how IU manages delivery of and use of local and federal resources. This talk will be presented specifically with the objective of informing campus CI implementers, users, and future users of federal CI facilities about how to negotiate campus and national CI facilities to enable research all while charming your local CFO. Bio: Dr. Craig Stewart leads the executive director of the Pervasive Technology Institute (PTI), IU’s flagship initiative for advanced IT research, development, and delivery in support of research, scholarship, and artistic performances. He is particularly involved in leading cyberinfrastructure services affiliated with PTI, and its activities in economic development, training, education, and outreach. Stewart is also Associate Dean for Research Technologies, and as such leads the Research Technologies division of University Information Technology Services (UITS). The Research Technologies division which serves Indiana University’s (IU) research and scholarship missions through computation, storage, and visualization facilities and support. Stewart has extensive experience leading and managing services to support IU researchers – including past appointments as director of the Stat/Math Center, Research and Academic Computing, and Indiana Genomics Initiative Information Technology Core; and special assistant for the Life Sciences, IU Office of the Vice President for Research. He is also an adjunct professor in informatics, medical genetics, and biology, and has been a visiting faculty member in Computer Science, University of Stuttgart and a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Technische Universitaet Dresden (Germany). Stewart has also led in the development of cyberinfrastructure at the national level, recently completing an appointment at the National Science Foundation as the manager of Campus Bridging for XSEDE. In his copious spare time Stewart is also a runner. Stewart holds a PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology from Indiana University, and a BA in mathematics and biology from Wittenberg University. Stewart’s talk is part of the Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering Seminar Series; all CDE Certificate students are encouraged to attend.