Project Description
CI Compass provides expertise and active support to cyberinfrastructure practitioners at NSF Major Facilities in order to accelerate the data lifecycle and ensure the integrity and effectiveness of the cyberinfrastructure upon which research and discovery depend.
The vision for CI Compass is to be the leader in supporting and enhancing the national CI ecosystem that includes people, practical knowledge, and processes to facilitate knowledge sharing and discovery across the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Major Facilities (MFs).
The CICoE Pilot developed a data lifecycle (DLC) model that identifies specific stages of the data flow within MFs. The model captures the transformation of raw data into more interoperable and integration-ready data products that can be visualized, disseminated, and transformed into insights and knowledge.
The DLC stages are composed of data capture; initial processing near the instrument(s); central processing at data centers or clouds; data storage, curation, and archiving; and data access, dissemination, and visualization. Some CI aspects are cross-cutting through DLC stages, such as data movement functions, technologies, and policies; data representation, ontologies, and cross-domain data discovery (FAIR data); and identity management for data providers, administrators, and users, which is important to the safekeeping and policy-based sharing of the data.
The DLC model captures the specific functions and services offered at each DLC stage, the CI supporting each stage, and the CI services that span and impact multiple DLC stages. The CI underlying the DLC is critical to enabling the MFs to fulfill their science missions.
Using the DLC, CI Compass works with MFs, contributing knowledge and expertise to enhance the overall NSF CI ecosystem. The Center aims to amplify the investments made by NSF in individual MF CI by providing expertise where needed to evolve the CI; capturing and disseminating CI knowledge and practices that power MF science breakthroughs; and brokering connections to enable knowledge sharing between and across MF CI professionals and the broader CI community.
The CI Compass team has deep expertise in a number of areas critical to the MF DLC including data management, data processing, visualization, identity management, systems, and infrastructure. Additionally, the team has experience in the management of CI projects from the conceptualization and design phase to the broad adoption of CI.
Project Publications
- Blueprint: Cyberinfrastructure Center of Excellence
- Cyberinfrastructure Center of Excellence Pilot: Connecting Large Facilities Cyberinfrastructure
- Toward a Data Lifecycle Model for NSF Large Facilities
- CI CoE and CI4Resilience’s Creating a Thriving Workplace Workshop Report
- 2022 Cyberinfrastructure for NSF Major Facilities Workshop Report
- Broadening Student Engagement To Build the Next Generation of Cyberinfrastructure Professionals
