CC* Planning: Designing a Regional Science DMZ for Small Colleges and Universities in Pennsylvania
Many smaller and mid-sized campuses in Pennsylvania have compelling science research and education activities along with an awareness of the benefits associated with better access to cyberinfrastructure resources. Yet, these under-resourced schools continue to struggle through the process to: identify, understand, and quantify their existing science drivers; understand the corresponding cyberinfrastructure; and, then provide both the technical and application support associated with the cyberinfrastructure to support initial and future research applications. For some institutions, the standard regional connectivity model, a separate connection to a high-performance research and education network, may not be appropriate.
This project worked with an initial set of pilot schools, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Lafayette College and Lehigh Carbon Community College to develop mechanisms for a campus to identify cyberinfrastructure-based applications, understand the required cyberinfrastructure-based resources and identify appropriate campus science DMZ architectures. The project investigated the feasibility of various campus and regional Science DMZ designs through outreach to existing funded projects and developed a design for a statewide regional science DMZ aimed at easing access to cyberinfrastructure resources in a cost-effective manner for small and mid-sized campuses in the region.
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. For more information, please see the NSF website.