CC* CIRA: Alabama Advanced Research Computing Consortium (AARCC)

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).

Alabama’s institutions of higher learning are often limited in local cyberinfrastructure resources, including research computing facilitator expertise, and in effectively leveraging national cyberinfrastructure resources and investments. This problem puts Alabama researchers at a competitive disadvantage for sponsored research that would otherwise benefit research, healthcare, and economic growth for the people of Alabama.

The diversity of institutions and priorities have made the creation and implementation of a unified cyberinfrastructure plan difficult. Alabama, however, is at a unique moment in time where federal, state, and academic research priorities are aligned to invest in statewide cyberinfrastructure for research and economic development. Alabama EPSCoR (ALEPSCoR) recently completed a Science and Technology report identifying areas of strategic research importance.

This project aims to take advantage of three existing efforts: the NSF CI CoE: Demo Pilot: Minority Serving Cyberinfrastructure Consortium, the ALEPSCoR plan, and Governor Kay Ivey’s Alabama Executive Order 720 to stimulate an innovation economy. These three efforts not only have the potential to provide focus on broadening the playing field, but also bringing critical social and political energy to the table to transform research and education in Alabama for smaller institutions.

The project aims to bring together a diverse group of institutions, including 15 HBCUs, to develop a comprehensive cyberinfrastructure plan. This has the potential to broaden participation and access to essential scientific computing resources. The team will host outreach events at each of the eight doctoral degree granting universities in the state in addition to one with industry leaders in the state.

The events will be held at Alabama A&M University, Alabama State University, Auburn University, University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Alabama at Huntsville, University of South Alabama, and Tuskegee University. The project goal to foster improved and better coordinated advanced research computing and networking capabilities across the state's institutions of higher education can contribute to increased STEM participation, education, and workforce training.

The Alabama Advanced Research Computing Consortium (AARCC) is composed of a steering committee and working groups from the eight doctoral universities, two of which are designated HBCUs, and industry leaders in the state, tasked with three deliverables: 1) a statewide cyberinfrastructure plan, 2) a statewide research network plan, and 3) a statewide research computing consortium plan. Stakeholder engagement events are being used to inform researchers and campus leaders about the research cyberinfrastructure available, and also for AARCC to learn about research priorities and cyberinfrastructure barriers at those institutions.

AARCC will also coordinate with the Alabama Higher Education CIO Council to address needs for high-capacity networking within the state. Ultimately, AARCC seeks research competitiveness in ALEPSCoR investment priorities to spur growth of the modern 21st century Alabama economy. The activities proposed have the potential to significantly impact the role of computational education across the state of Alabama.

Providing a collaborative state-wide cyberinfrastructure plan would provide significant value, especially to the bulk of the institutions in the state that serve underrepresented and rural populations. This project is a great example of the types of activities targeted in CC* Area#5: state-wide CI planning and coordination activities providing a long-term basis from which to implement a vision and strategy for equitable access to CI resources across all institutions.

This project is funded through the collaborative efforts of the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

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.