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Cyberinfrastructure Requirements and Best
PracticesLessons from a study
of TeraGrid
Ann ZimmermanResearch Assistant ProfessorUM School of InformationOGF Workshop, May 27, 2009
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Outline
Background Challenges People Methods used Analysis Conclusions
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Background: Learning from TeraGrid
NSF-funded study to examine:– The TeraGrid collaboration– user needs and requirements– impact on research practice & outcomes– education, outreach & training activities
Research Team– Tom Finholt, PI; Ann Zimmerman, co-PI– Magia Krause, PhD student
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Key Questions: User Needs What factors affect users’ computing
needs and requirements? What factors affect users' behavior as it
relates to their use (or non-use) of TeraGrid/HPC?
How are the needs of users expected to change over the next five years?
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Key Questions Continued
Where do users currently spend time that does not count as doing science?
What research questions do they want to answer but currently cannot? What are the barriers?
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Data Collection
June 2006-May 2007 7 site visits, including 4 TeraGrid sites Interviews (n=~90) Participant observations User workshop Document analysis and review Surveys
– Survey of current TeraGrid users– Surveys of tutorials at TG ’06 & TG ‘07
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TeraGrid Planning Process The goal of the planning process was to
– develop options for delivering TeraGrid resources and services
– based on the diverse needs of science and engineering communities
http://www.teragridfuture.org/
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Challenges
Heterogeneous users Potentially thousands of users Distributed environment
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People included in the study Current TeraGrid users “Target” TeraGrid users
– Non-users– Science gateway developers
Cyberinfrastructure “experts” TeraGrid personnel
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METHODS
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Workshops
Strengths– Learn by seeing users interact– Gain both broad & detailed information– Relatively efficient
Challenges– Require careful & creative planning (pre-
and post-workshop)– Invite 3-4 times as many people as you
want to participate in the workshop
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Interviews
Strengths– Gain detailed information– Information informs survey development
Challenges– Time-consuming (to conduct & to analyze
data)– Resources limit the number of people who
can be interviewed
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Category DefinitionNumber of
intervieweesTeraGrid Users
Individual Researchers
Individuals associated with a project that had a TeraGrid allocation at the time of the interview
26
TeraGrid Users
Science Gateway Developers
Individuals who on a day-to-day basis spend some portion of their time working on a project designated as a TeraGrid Science Gateway
27
TeraGrid Personnel Individuals employed by one of the TeraGrid RP sites who have a formal or informal role in the TeraGrid project
26
Non-TeraGrid Users of HPC Resources
Individuals who use HPC computing resources other than TeraGrid
3
Cyberinfrastructure Experts Individuals with extensive knowledge of high-performance computing
4
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Survey
Advantages– Findings are generalizable across a larger
population– Inexpensive (in $ not in person time)
Challenges– Developing a good survey is hard– Getting a good response rate takes a lot of
effort
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Participant Observation
Advantages– Learn about all the factors that affect the
ability to serve users– Learn about user needs from a variety of
sources Challenges
– Time-consuming– Capturing and analyzing data
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FINDINGS
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Components of User Behavior The nature of the research problem Alignment between infrastructure and
scientific practice Computational readiness Ease of use
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Achieving Transformative Science “Easy” things can be show stoppers Many complexities to manage
– virtual organization – diverse user needs– changes in science
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Conclusions
Different methods provide different kinds of information
Involve more than users in your study Current methods are effective, but time-
consuming and resource-intensive– New methods required. For example,
“mine” and analyze sources of information (wikis, user support logs and databases, user sites)
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More information
TeraGrid evaluation study reports & Planning Process workshop reports– http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu (browse for
documents by Ann Zimmerman) Other TeraGrid Planning Process
materials– http://teragridfuture.org
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Acknowledgments
TeraGrid Research participants NSF grants OCI-0602525 and OCI-
0724300
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Contact me!
Sorry I couldn’t be here! Contact me at:
– [email protected]– http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~asz/index.html