Democratizing Science through Cyberinfrastructure - Manish Parashar

1. Democratizing Science through
Cyberinfrastructure
Manish Parashar
Office Director, Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure
National Science Foundation
Fourth National Research Platform (4NRP)
San Diego, CA
February 09, 2023

2. NSF Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC)
People, organizations,
and communities
Data
Infrastructure
Gateways, Hubs,
and Services
Cloud
Resources
& Services
CI-Enabled
Instrumentation
Computing
Resources
R&E Networks,
Security Layers
Coordination
& User support
Software and
Workflow Systems
Pilots,
Testbeds
Foster a cyberinfrastructure ecosystem to transform science and engineering
research… through Research CI and CI research
Rapid (disruptive ) changes in S&E, users and
CI landscapes à Cyberinfrastructure
ecosystem must evolve!
http://go.usa.gov/xm8bU

3. Transforming Science & Engineering via
Cyberinfrastructure
Large-scale simulations
on Frontera to better
understand the icy
plumes associated with
supercell thunderstorms.
Leigh Orf, Univ. of
Wisconsin-Madison,
Science Vol. 373, No.
6560, 09/10/21.
Exploring how natural
ecosystems parallel U.S.
supply chains, and how
American cities can use
the information to
strengthen supply chains.
Benjamin Ruddell, N. AZ
Univ., Nature. Vol 595,
07/08/21.
Event Horizon Telescope: Blackhole Image
(Sagittarius A*)
May 2022
Modeling of the delta virus inside respiratory
aerosols, Rommie Amaro, UCSD
ACM Gordan Bell Finalist, 2021
NSF/OAC-funded Zeek (formerly
Bro), a leading (open-source)
network security monitoring
platform, deployed on more than
1B global endpoints.
Vern Paxson, 10/12/22.

4. Shared Campus
Resources
Leadership-class
Frontera (Austin)
Cloud Resources
CloudBank (San Diego)
CloudLab (Salt Lake City)
Chameleon Lab (Chicago)
NCAR
Cheyenne (Cheyenne)
HTC Services
PATh/OSG (Madison)
Innovative systems
Bridges-2, Neocortex (Pitt)
Stampede 2, Wrangler (Austin)
Jetstream, JetStream-2 (Bloomington)
Ookami (Stonybrook)
Expanse, Voyager, National Research Platform (San Diego)
Anvil (W. Lafayette)
Delta (Urbana-Champaign)
ACES (College Station)
ACCESS PIs
NSF-funded Advanced CI Ecosystem
(Highly Accessible Computing)
FABRIC Network (Nationwide)
PAWR Testbeds

5. Shared Campus
Resources
Leadership-class
Frontera (Austin)
Cloud Resources
CloudBank (San Diego)
CloudLab (Salt Lake City)
Chameleon Lab (Chicago)
NCAR
Cheyenne (Cheyenne)
HTC Services
PATh/OSG (Madison)
Innovative systems
Bridges-2, Neocortex (Pitt)
Stampede 2, Wrangler (Austin)
Jetstream, JetStream-2 (Bloomington)
Ookami (Stonybrook)
Expanse, Voyager, National Research Platform (San Diego)
Anvil (W. Lafayette)
Delta (Urbana-Champaign)
ACES (College Station)
ACCESS PIs
NSF-funded Advanced CI Ecosystem
(Highly Accessible Computing)
FABRIC Network (Nationwide)
PAWR Testbeds
How to democratize access to the NSF-funded Advanced
CI ecosystem?

6. Democratizing Science through Cyber-infrastructure
Broad, fair, and equitable access to advanced is
essential to democratizing science in the 21st
century
• Significant barriers
• Knowledge: Awareness, discovery, expertise, support
• Technical: Allocation, access, on-ramps
• Social: Awareness of the importance of access to CI, rewards
structures
• Complex tradeoffs / optimizations
• Capacity v/s capability
• Stability v/s innovation
• Performance v/s ease of use
• Expert v/s novice
• .....
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M. Parashar, "Democratizing Science Through
Advanced Cyberinfrastructure" in Computer, vol.
55, no. 09, pp. 79-84, 2022. doi:
10.1109/MC.2022.3174928
https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/co/2022/
09/09869577/1GeVwbmLj6U

7. Realizing an Advanced CI Ecosystem for All
• Integrated and user-friendly portals and gateways for discovering and
accessing resources;
• Access to local CI resources as part of a shared fabric of national CI
resources reachable through high-speed frictionless data networking;
• Diverse and flexible allocation and access modes that support a
diversity of users and applications;
• Agile, easily accessible, and scalable networks of experts providing
embedded expertise and support that is responsive to local needs;
and
• Broadly accessible training targeting the spectrum of CI users and
skills.
The Missing Millions: Democratizing
Computation and Data to Bridge Digital
Divides and Increase Access to Science for
Underrepresented Communities (A.
Blatecky, EAGER)
https://www.rti.org/publication/missing-
millions/fulltext.pdf

8. Realizing an Advanced CI Ecosystem for All
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• Implement a scalable federated ecosystem of diverse capabilities and
capacity
• Leverage institutional, commercial investments; incentivize
partnerships
How to meet the the
rapidly growing need for
increased (and diverse) CI
capabilities and capacity?
• Move form open/equal access to democratized/equitable access
• Address knowledge, technical/process and social barriers
• Develop a scalable network for local experts, responding to local
needs
How to ensure
democratized access to CI
resources, services and
expertise?
• Embrace transparency, reproducibility, security/privacy as core
design principle for software and systems
• Support open access to research results along with software and
data
How to ensure the science
enabled by CI robust and
reproducible?

9. 9
2022 OSTP memo on Open
Science and Public Access
§ Calls for free, immediate, and equitable
public access
§ Default zero-embargo of peer-reviewed
articles and underlying data
§ New Public Access/Open Science plans by
Feb 2023 (policies by 2024, released by 2025)
Towards an Equitable National Research Ecosystem
NATIONAL DISCOVERY
CLOUD / NATIONAL
SECURE DATA SERVICE
SUBCOMMITTEE
ON OPEN SCIENCE
NATIONAL AI
RESEARCH RESOURCE
FUTURE ADVANCED
COMPUTING ECOSYSTEM
Realizing the National Advanced Computing
Ecosystem

10. Realizing an Advanced CI Ecosystem for All: Some
Next Steps
• Access. How do we collectively ensure, and advance accessibility of data
and shared CI needed across science?
• Data. How do we collectively enable and accelerate compute- and data-
intensive science across NSF, including scaling up for facilities and mid-scale
RI needs?
• People. How do we collectively develop and sustain a capable workforce of
CI Professionals who are key to science?
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11. CUI//PRVCY
“Make no little plans; They have no magic to stir men's blood …”
Daniel H. Burnham, Architect and City Planner Extraordinaire, 1907.
“If you want to travel fast, travel alone;
if you want to travel far, travel together”
African Proverb.
Manish Parashar
Office Director, Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure
Email: mparasha@nsf.gov
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Thank You
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