David tried to send this message to the IT Committee list but it
bounced, so I'm passing it along for him.
--gary
attached mail follows:
Gary, I want to share my praise to Mary Fran for recognizing the importance
of this opportunity, and lets hope the NSF reviewers look kindly on this
proposal.
As you may know, we in Alabama have a MI initiative as part of a currently
funded NSF EPSCoR RII project and I am very interested in outcomes of these
efforts and this proposal.
David
David L. Shealy, Ph.D.
Professor & Chair, Department of Physics
Director, Academic Computing, VP IT
310 Campbell Hall, 1300 University Blvd
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham, AL 35294-1170
Email: dls@uab.edu Voice: 205-934-8068; FAX: 205-934-8042
-----Original Message-----
From: Gary Crane [mailto:gcrane@sura.org]
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2001 11:06 AM
To: SURA IT Comm
Subject: SURA Participation in Joint Internet2-Educause-SURA NSF
Proposal
SURA was approached a couple of weeks ago by Internet2 to participate in
a joint Internet2-Educause NSF proposal to the Network Centric
MIDDLEWARE Services Program (NSF 01-63). The following URL will take
you directly to the program description:
http://www.interact.nsf.gov/cise/descriptions.nsf/c52c887baa2e04e68525665900
4991cb/c52056c3dc040112852569f100695376?OpenDocument
Mary Fran Yafchak (SURA's IT Program Coordinator) took the lead on
developing this opportunity and we quickly circulated a request for
support from the IT Steering Committee for this effort. Since this was
an opportunity to participate in a proposal with national scope with no
cost sharing requirements, the support from the IT Steering Group was
unanimous. If this proposal is funded, SURA will receive $300,000 per
year for three years from the NSF to develop and manage a middleware
testbed in the SURA region. As you can see below, the majority of the
funds will go to participating SURA member universities.
Mary Fran is to be congratulated for the excellent job that she has done
in capturing this opportunity for the SURA community, particularly given
the very tight time constraints that came with this. Attached is a copy
of the proposal summary that was submitted to the NSF. Below are
excerpts from the proposal that describes SURA's role in this proposal.
This is an excellent example of how SURA can act to develop
opportunities for our member institutions that most probably would not
be available to individual member institutions. Again, kudos to Mary
Fran for a job well done.
--gary
Excerpts from Internet2-Educause-SURA joint proposal to the NSF
Middleware Services Program
The middleware testbed will be coordinated by SURA and developed as a
closely coordinated effort among separate R&E institutions, acting to
produce a model of how middleware components will be introduced and used
in actual deployment within and across institutions. The testbed will
work in close and direct collaboration with the system integrator
(Internet2) throughout the project to identify middleware components
that are near readiness for testing, develop a mutually agreed upon
timeline for integration of the above components into the testbed and
communicate regularly regarding testing results.
The testbed will be designed such that a useful level of focused testing
is sponsored within the three target areas (desktop, campus
infrastructure, applications) while broader participation is stimulated
and encouraged. This will be achieved through the following structure:
- Testbed Program Management will be provided by a SURA Testbed Manager
(Mary Fran Yafcahak) who will develop, document, and ensure the
progress of the testbed project plan in coordination with the system
integrator and the testbed sites.
- Sponsored Testbed Participants - Four SURA member institutions will be
selected to be Sponsored Testbed Participants and will form the core of
the testbed. Each institution will commit to participating as a testbed
site for the three year period and will designate an administrative
lead and a technical lead to work directly and in close coordination
with the Testbed Manager. Each institution will receive $60K/year to
defray the costs of participation (administrative or technical lead
time, technology, cost of attending regular meetings, i.e., travel
and/or video conferencing capability).
- Unsponsored Testbed Participants - SURA will identify the participants
above through a Call for Participation that will also provide
information about other institutions that are qualified and interested
in being part of the testbed and may wish to participate as Unsponsored
Testbed Participants. SURA will actively explore ways to incorporate
these additional institutions into the testbed to whatever degree
resources permit.
The SURA IT Committee will form a sub-committee to assist in the
selection of the Sponsored Testbed Participants and in the evaluation
of other applicant sites for extending unsponsored involvement. The
sub-committee will also serve as an advisory group that is available
"on call" to the Testbed Manager throughout the project.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri May 11 2001 - 13:34:44 EDT