EPIC Virtual Institues Online Course Site (Moodle)
(Moodle is a course management system (CMS) - a free, Open Source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities.)

“Collaborative Research: EPIC Engaging People in Cyberinfrastructure”
Florida International University – The Engineering Center
http://www.eng.fiu.edu

Project Leads:
(PI) Amado Gonzalez, Graphic Simulation Laboratory Director – Amado.Gonzalez@FIU.edu
(Co-PI) George Dulikravich, MIADROC Director – George.Dulikravich@FIU.edu

Contact for Public Affairs:
Maydel Santana-Bravo, Maydel.Santana-Bravo@FIU.edu
Florida International University

Statement of Work

The unifying element that brings the Minority Serving Institution Virtual Institute, the MSI Conference in 2005 at the Supercomputing Conference in Seattle, and the MSI Resource Database is Cyberinfrastructure. The MSI-VI will engage various disciplines and people across the nation in how specific discipline including Tissue Engineering, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Diversity in Computing, Neurosciences, Visualization, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Information Technology, are utilizing cyberinfrastructure in Research and Development, Education and Learning, Dissemination of scholarly activities, establishing new partnerships, and overall Academic Globalization.

Current Cyberinfrastructure and e-Science efforts underway are allowing Scientist, Researcher, Faculty, students, and Administrators to share resources, access instruments and data, and collaborate in educational environments in ways that they never have before. The Goal of the MSI-VI is to educate and mentor Minority Serving Institutions in these emerging areas in order to minimize the digital divide and allow them to participate and contribute in National Cyberinfrastructure and Computational Efforts. Detailed information on the MSI-VI can be found at http://www.eng.fiu.edu/AGVI. Here you will find leaders that will be contributing to these efforts and exact dates as to when they will be presenting. The MSI-VI will take place twice a month, every second Wednesday and last Wednesday of the month from 3:30 to 5:00 pm eastern time. The AccessGrid developed at Argonne National Laboratory will be the primary tool used to engage the nation and the world in these fully interactive, collaborative session. In addition there will also be video web streams of the events for those institutions which have not yet put an AccessGrid in place; each session will also be recorded digitally and stored for the MSI-VI participants to access and review at any time. In order to assess and evaluate the MSI-VI, every session will have an on-line evaluation survey of that event for tracking purposes.

In addition to the MSI-VI, there will be an MSI Conference 2005, and a MSI Resource Database developed. The MSI Conference will bring the MSI-VI participants together in November in Seattle, Washington during the Supercomputing Conference. The date for the MSI Conference will be November 17, 2005, and will consist of a keynote address, and various presentations of technical papers and tutorials of the MSI community. The MSI Conference will allow the community to come together to be informed of initiatives and efforts underway at the various institutions and how new partnerships can be established to be able to contribute to these efforts. The MSI Database will be a resource for both MSI’s and Majority Institutions to locate specific researchers and scientist and there area of research with detailed contact information for the purpose of being able to contribute to efforts currently underway for grant preparation. The MSI Database will also work in collaboration with the Coalition to Diversify Computing to develop a comprehensive. MSI Conference 2005 and MSI Database information can also be located at http://www.eng.fiu.edu/AGVI .

Amado Gonzalez will also serve on the “Collaborative Research: EPIC-Engaging People in Cyberinfrastructure” Advancement Team and will co-lead national MSI EPIC activities with Minority Serving Institution Network Director Stephenie Mclean and the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

It is the intent that these efforts will produce an outcome of continued work even after the funding for EOT EPIC is complete. The PI for the specified activities is working towards making the AccessGrid Virtual Institute a continued effort for the Minority Serving Institution Network and Florida International University, and researching how this work can be continued with High Energy Physics, Astronomy, Grid Computing, and numerous Academic Disciplines at FIU. Current Outreach efforts are also looking towards South America and the Caribbean in collaboration with AMPATH: Americas PATHway, Center for Internet Augmented Research and Advancement at FIU: CIARA, and the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions: LACCEI. It is the hope that once the foundation is established the AccessGrid Virtual Institute and its components will continue to grow, collaborate, contribute regularly to national cyberinfrastructure efforts, and acquire additional funding for years to come.