NCShare
Creating cyberinfrastructure for advanced scientific computing
NCShare is a collaboration to advance research capabilities and STEM education at North Carolina’s universities who have historically been under resourced to pursue scientific breakthroughs.
Partners
About
The North Carolina Shared Research & Education collaborative infrastructure (NCShare) is bringing a high-speed research network to North Carolina’s minority and higher education institutions.
A partnership between Duke University, Davidson College, North Carolina Central University and MCNC, NCShare is committed to boosting STEM education and research capabilities statewide.
MCNC is the network provider for NCShare projects.
A nonprofit that owns and operates the North Carolina Research and Education Network (NCREN), MCNC provides high-performance networking services for education, research, libraries, health care, public safety, and other community anchor institutions throughout the state, including all public K-20 education institutions.
Projects
Thanks to the generous support of two National Science Foundation (NSF) grants, NCShare is launching two initiatives to empower scientific discovery.
Creating a Science DMZ
Purpose
A Science DMZ is a dedicated portion of a site or campus network, located as close to the network perimeter as possible, whose equipment, configuration and security policy are tailored to serve high-performance science applications. This initiative will establish a Science DMZ for five to seven institutions so campus researchers can access external sites with a speed and style of connectivity that is typically only available at large research universities.
Goals
Building a shared, regionally based network operating on MCNC’s existing state-wide research and education network aims to:
- Lower costs for universities and require fewer campus support personnel
- Provide fast and unrestricted data movement to multiple institutions
- Increase accessibility of high-speed, data-driven research by democratizing access to advanced cyberinfrastructure
- Enhance research productivity and collaboration
- Reduce the time required for scientific discoveries at participating minority-serving and smaller institutions
Award
$984,868
Duration
2 years
Investigators
Tracy Futhey
Vice President for Technology and Chief Information Officer, Duke University, Principal Investigator-sDMZ and Co-Principal Investigator-CaaS
Joel Faison
Chief Information Officer, North Carolina Central University, Co-Principal Investigator-sDMZ and Co-Principal Investigator-CaaS
Kevin Davis
Chief Information Officer, Davidson College, Co-Principal Investigator-sDMZ and Co-Principal Investigator-CaaS
Tracy Doaks
President and Chief Executive Officer, MCNC, Co-Principal Investigator-sDMZ
Dr. Deepak Kumar
Interim Associate Provost and Dean of RSP/Director of BBRI, Julius L. Chambers Biomedical/Biotechnology Research Institute, Co-Principal Investigator-sDMZ
Compute as a Service
Purpose
This collaboration among Duke University, North Carolina Central University (NCCU), and Davidson College builds a shared computing environment housed at North Carolina’s research and education network provider called MCNC. The shared computing environment supports a common set of software and science drivers, with priority use by Davidson, NCCU, and other North Carolina minority-serving and smaller institutions; OSG and Duke would have lower-priority use, if excess-capacity exists. As a result, faculty at participating institutions, who often juggle high course loads, have access to tools and services that ease the delivery of customized computing systems to meet their research needs and enable easy access to powerful tools for students.
Goals
The goal of this project is to provide a shared computing environment in a centrally managed, efficient and flexible fashion, that can support common, as well as individual, needs for faculty and researchers at the two pilot schools, and then extend that environment and support techniques to others within the region.
Award
$397,557
Duration
2 years
Investigators
Charley Kneifel
Senior Technical Director, Duke University, Principal Investigator-CaaS
Tracy Futhey
Vice President for Technology and Chief Information Officer, Duke University, Principal Investigator-sDMZ and Co-Principal Investigator-CaaS
Joel Faison
Chief Information Officer, North Carolina Central University, Co-Principal Investigator-sDMZ and Co-Principal Investigator-CaaS
Kevin Davis
Chief Information Officer, Davidson College, Co-Principal Investigator-sDMZ and Co-Principal Investigator-CaaS
Mohammad Ahmed
College of Health and Sciences and Associate Director of Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL), North Carolina Central University, Co-Principal Investigator-CaaS
Research Computing Peer Demo (Via Zoom)
View meeting recording here.
Tuesday, Feb, 21, 3:00 — 4:00 p.m. (ET)
Join peer researchers/instructors for a demo and Information Session from 3 – 4 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 21, via Zoom, to learn more about how the network tools are working. Our goal is to attract a vibrant group of researchers and educators who will form a Community of Practice (CoP), advancing the development of the NCShare network. The CoP will work to expand and improve the exchange of ideas and increase collaboration in North Carolina regarding the software and services needed for research. This information session is the start to many of these engagements.
Presenters:
- – JUPTYER Notebooks: Kristin Stephens-Martinez, Assistant Professor of the Practice, Computer Science, Duke University
- – R-Studio: Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel, Professor of the Practice of Statistical Science, Duke University
- – R-Studio: Colin Rundel, Associate Professor of the Practice of Statistical Science, Duke University
Registration is not required, but preferred. If you are unable to attend but are interested, let us know by completing the RSVP form or sending an email to info@ncshare.org.
Click here to RSVP: https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bjeoxr3pkYI7Bxs