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Engaging People in Cyberinfrastructure

epic logo 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. For more see http://blend.ncat.edu/.

  • 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
RENCI

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
Technology for the People

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