Overview
Engaging People In Cyberinfrastructure (EPIC) builds human capacity by creating awareness of the opportunities afforded through cyberinfrastructure (CI). It also educates and trains a diverse group of people in all stages of life—from K-12 to professional practice—to fully participate in the CI community as developers, users, and leaders. Strategies designed to meet these goals include:
- Providing an integrated spectrum of computational science education and training in the use of tools and resources for science and math education at all levels.
- Enabling access to advanced technologies and tools in education and outreach.
- Ensuring diversity both by supporting specific access and inclusion projects and by infusing every aspect of EPIC with diversity, access, and inclusion.
- Establishing a large, energized community of educators, students, researchers, and citizens engaged in developing and using cyberinfrastructure.
An extensive cohort of partners will implement activities to support EPIC’s objectives, including: workshops and meetings; “train the trainers” activities; professional development, mentoring, and youth programs; diversity and accessibility programs; development of learning materials, software, and simulation tools; and online dissemination of materials, tools, resources, guides, reports and best practices.
The RENCI Contribution
RENCI will conduct a series of workshops and seminars to promote the use of national cyberinfrastructure resources. Through these activities, the aim is to increase the number of students and educators who are aware of these computational science and cyberinfrastructure tools and assist them in taking advantage of education and research opportunities.
RENCI co-chairs the Minority Serving Institution’s (MSI) program which works in concert with EPIC on the MSI Virtual Institute via the Access Grid.
Past Seminars
- September 28: Undergraduate student session: “Catalyst for Innovation in STEM/SBE”, Opt Ed Alliance Day, held at the Greensboro, Coliseum, Greensboro, NC. For more, see http://www.unc.edu/opt-ed/.
- October 10: The BLEND program, undergraduate biomath project, held at North Carolina A&T State University.
- October 17: Undergraduate General Biology for Non-Science Majors and Biological Inquiry for Biology Majors, held at Winston Salem State University.
Funding
- National Science Foundation
- State of North Carolina
Project Leaders
- Stephenie McLean, director of education and outreach & Minority Serving Institution Network
- John McGee, director of cyberinfrastructure development
National Project Leaders
- Roscoe Giles, Boston University
- Greg Moses, University of Wisconsin
- Amado Gonzalez, Florida International University, MSI Program
Publications
CyberInfo Beat
Presentations
EPIC presentations are available at the EPIC website
Partners
Statewide Partners
- University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
- University of North Carolina- Asheville
- Winston Salem State University
- Shodor Education Foundation, Inc.
- North Carolina A&T State University
- Pines of Carolina Girl Scout Council
- University of North Carolina Pembroke
National Partners
- BioQuest Curriculum Consortium
- Boston University
- Coalition to Diversity Computing
- Computer Research Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research
- Eisenhower National Clearinghouse
- Florida International University
- Maryland Virtual High School
- MathForum @ Drexel
- National Center for Supercomputing Applications
- Ohio Supercomputer Center
- Oregon State University
- Rice University
- San Diego State University
- San Diego Supercomputer Center
- SUNY Brockport
- Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin
- University of Kentucky
- University of Wisconsin – Madison
Links
EPIC Website
EPIC Virtual Institutes Online Course Site
MSI Network site