This document summarizes the goals and services provided by the Science Gateways Community Institute (SGCI). The SGCI aims to help the science gateway community build gateways more effectively through providing on-demand expertise, extended developer support, a scientific software collaborative, community engagement opportunities, and workforce development programs. Key services include incubation expertise across the gateway lifecycle, hands-on technical support for existing gateways, a platform to share and discover gateway software, and connections for knowledge sharing and professional development. The overarching goal is to support gateway developers and foster collaboration across the science gateway community.

1. Award Number
ACI-1547611
Science Gateways
Community Institute
Nancy Wilkins-Diehr, San Diego Supercomputer Center
wilkinsn@sdsc.edu

2. What is a science gateway?
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science gateway /sī′ əns gāt′ wā′/ n.
1. an online community space for science
and engineering research and
education.
2. a Web-based resource for
accessing data, software,
computing services, and
equipment specific to the
needs of a science or
engineering discipline.
Web portals, research platforms,
virtual labs, virtual research
environments. They go by many
names. Of course you are all using
these every day

3. Gateways are changing the face of science
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Number of gateway users accessing XSEDE explodes in 2016
Contributor
to BRAIN
initiative

4. • Developers typically
• work in isolation
• must bridge to
variety of resources
• need building
blocks in order to
focus on higher-
level functionality
• struggle to secure
sustainable funding
Despite many successes, through out work over
more than 10 years, we observed challenges
Early
adopters
Publicity
Wider
adoption
Funding
ends
Scientists
disillusioned
New
project
prototype

5. We studied the problem
And studied it some more and…
Good things come to those who wait!
2009-2012
EAGER
2012-2015
Concept.
phase
2016
Software
Institute!
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• More focus groups
• Survey with 5000
responses
Focus groups

6. 6
We were finally able to implement our vision
5-year S2I2 Implementation phase award began Aug, 2016
$15M over 5 years to SGCI

7. Science Gateways Community Institute
Designed to help the community build gateways more effectively
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Diverse expertise
on demand
Longer-term,
hands-on support
Student
opportunities &
educator resources
Sharing
experiences &
knowledge as a
community
Software & visibility
for gateways

8. Incubator
Expertise for the gateway lifecycle
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Need specialized expertise on a part-term basis?
Want to learn gateway-building, from start to finish?
Project Management
Sustainability Planning
• Nancy Maron, creator of the ITHAKA S+R course
on Sustaining Digital Resources
Business & Strategic Planning
• The Purdue Foundry, national award-
winning entrepreneurship program
Security
• Center for Trustworthy Scientific
Cyberinfrastructure
Impact Measurement & Evaluation
• Ann Zimmerman Consulting
Community Engagement
Development Tools & Processes
Technology Planning, Open-Source Licensing &
Selection
• Indiana University Science Gateways Research
Center, initiators of Apache Airavata
Graphic & User-Interface Design
Usability
• University of Michigan & Purdue University User
Experience Programs
Creating Institutional Resources
• Notre Dame’s Center for Research Computing
• HUBzero® group at Purdue
Request services at https://sciencegateways.org/request-services

9. Need to build your gateway beyond your team’s capacity?
How We Benefit Our Clients
• Help adapt to new resources, technologies, and users
• Share our deep understanding of community
needs
• Capture and document our support of client’s
gateway
• Co-author papers or present posters
• Strengthen team’s software-engineering practices
• Give hands-on opportunities to students
Extended Developer Support
Enhancing gateways through technical help
from experienced gateway developers
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Flexibility
• Technology agnostic
• Gateways using all types of CI
• Services available for 3 to 12 months
• “Burst” support for smaller issues
• Well-defined engagements with work plans
Request EDS services:
sciencegateways.org/
request-services

10. Current EDS projects
Consultation Keywords
ChemCompute Computational chemistry, undergraduate education, HPC
COSMIC^2 Structural biology, experimental data analysis, large scale file movement,
authentication, HPC
CitSci.org Citizen science, ecology, PaaS, software engineering, DevOps, cloud
hosting
USD
Cybergateway
Campus gateways, campus-based authentication, computational science,
HPC
QUBES Quantitative biology education, collaboration, document sharing
Aquavit Multi-institutional gateway, water management, collaboration, federal
agency integration
ENIGMA Brain science, data sharing, cloud hosting
Cloud Launch Cloud computing, containers
VC3 Cloud computing, virtualization, resource federation, API design
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11. Want to find software
solutions?
Have software to share?
Scientific Software Collaborative
Leveraging & promoting existing
investments in gateway technologies
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Scientific
Software
Collaborative
Extend Your Audience
• List your gateway or components
• Offer your technology
• Support gateways as SGCI
Affiliate
End-to-End Solutions
• Browse existing gateways
• Identify their technologies
• Use for your research or
teaching
• Identify platforms or components
and use what you need
• Assemble & test in our “sandbox”
Sign up for our newsletter to be notified:
sciencegateways.org/community/newsletter
Consensus

12. 12
How do I find a
gateway I can
use in my
classroom to
help teach my
students?
I have a really
great gateway,
how can I share
it with the wider
community?
WOW! This
gateway
looks great
how can I
contact the
team and find
out more
about how
they built it?
I want to play
with these
gateway tools,
how do I get
started?
My team consists of
Django developers,
how can I find
gateways that are
built using tools
my team is already
familiar with?
Consensus

13. Eager to share what you know or have created?
Wish you could learn from others’ experience?
Want to grow gateway-building expertise at your institution?
Want to promote research and international exchange?
Community Engagement &
Exchange
Connecting the community through
interaction & professional development
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Ways to Connect
• Learn to create your own campus-based
gateway development group
• Share what you know through a guest blog,
webinar, case study, or conference
• Become a partner or affiliate
• Submit your research to our joint special issues
with international workshops
• Offer us your feedback, input, or requests
Stay engaged: https://sciencegateways.org/community/contact-us

14. Special focus:
Gateway expertise on campuses
• Is your campus seeing an
increasing number of research
projects that include web-based
applications?
• Does each group hire
developers independently?
• This can be time consuming
and inefficient
• Campus gateway groups are
an efficient way to develop
gateways
• Centralized teams collaborating
with diverse researchers and
research teams
• Each project doesn’t have to
fund a full time developer
• Synergy effects between
projects
• Wider variety of expertise
available
• Lower learning curves
• Researchers and students can
focus on their research
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Successful Formation

15. • Students
• Fellowships and internships
• Travel support
• Training
• Summer coding opportunities
• Young Professionals Network
• Year 1 work with
• NOBBCHe (National Organization for the
Professional Advancement of Black Chemists
and Chemical Engineers)
• ADMI (Association of Computer/Information
Sciences and Engineering Departments at
Minority Institutions)
• Faculty
• Gateways in the curricula
• Career tracks for gateway developers
• ACTION: Watch for opportunities for
faculty and students via the mailing list
• https://sciencegateways.org/community/n
ewsletter
Workforce Development

16. Opportunities to Engage
• Research projects may equest a Letter of
Collaboration to leverage existing SGCI
offerings
• Software developers an Affiliate to provide
expertise to SGCI clients and attract users to
your software
• Write SGCI experts into proposals for
dedicated, continuing expertise
Email help@sciencegateways.org to discuss
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17. Thank you!
• SGCI follow-up
• Mailing list for news and updates:
https://sciencegateways.org/community/newsletter
• Ready to request our services?
https://sciencegateways.org/request-services
• Have a question? help@sciencegateways.org
• @sciencegateways on Twitter
• http://sciencegateways.org/linkedin
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