Collaborative Research: NSF INCLUDES Alliance: Alliance Supporting Pacific Impact through Computational Excellence (ALL-SPICE)

ALL SPICE Abstract

The NSF INCLUDES Alliance Supporting Pacific Impact through Computational Excellence (ALL-SPICE) proposes efforts to harness the data revolution to support sustainability, economic development, and social justice in the Hawai'i-Pacific region. ALL-SPICE, led by Chaminade University of Honolulu with partners at the University of Texas Austin, Texas Advanced Computing Center, and the University of Hawai'i, will focus on the development of regional data science capacity in support of Hawai'i-Pacific progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

ALL-SPICE will build educational and research capacity in data science for community impact in Hawai'i and the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI), adapting data science curriculum for online deployment to reach rural, neighbor island and USAPI participants, enhancing faculty research capacity in data science, developing new undergraduate data science research experiences, and producing new Pacific-focused data science courses for broad deployment across the Alliance. Additionally, ALL-SPICE will curate a ‘Wayfinding to Data’ (W2D) portfolio of data science training opportunities spanning K-20 and targeting marginalized populations.

The development of a robust data science infrastructure, regional expertise in analytics, and strong linkages to decision support cyberinfrastructure will empower Hawai'i-Pacific communities to provide Pacific perspectives rooted in Pacific experiences and epistemology in global opportunities for STEM, data science and policymaking. ALL-SPICE is positioned for collective impact on Hawai'i-Pacific data science through the backbone organization (Chaminade University of Honolulu, Texas Advanced Computing Center, and the Hawai'i Data Science Institute at the University of Hawai'i) and a wide coordination network that spans Hawai'i and the (USAPI).

The Coordination Network comprises major partnerships with the East West Center, the NSF Islands of Opportunity LSAMP Alliance (two- and four-year colleges across Micronesia, American Samoa, Guam, the Marshall Islands, and the Northern Marianas) and social sector partners with a shared agenda of strengthening communities and progress towards the SDG in the region. The STEM Educational Research (SER) knowledge base for inclusive Hawai'i-Pacific data science education will be enhanced by research conducted on social justice-oriented approaches to enculturation of data science pedagogy, and approaches that foster self-efficacy and sense-of-belonging for Hawai'i- Pacific data science students.

Alliance products will contribute to a new collaborative infrastructure for data science education in Hawai'i (including rural/ neighbor island locales) and the USAPI. Data products will inform policy and provide decision support for Pacific-led environmental, economic, and social justice strategy. Broader impacts include increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in data science.

ALL-SPICE activities are expected to positively impact workforce development and employment pathways in data science for Hawai’i and the USAPI. As a result, the region will be strengthened by data-driven decision support capacity related to the SDGs, particularly in environmental resilience, health, poverty reduction and innovation.

This Alliance is funded by NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES), a comprehensive national initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in discoveries and innovations by focusing on diversity, inclusion and broadening participation in STEM at scale. The Alliance is also funded by the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program, which assists universities and colleges in diversifying the STEM workforce, and the NSF Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program.

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.