The University of Hawaii has secured a $6.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to enhance cyber infrastructure adoption, capacity, and training in the Pacific region.
The five-year grant will fund a project that offer services, education, and research programs to engage faculty, researchers, and students in advanced cyber infrastructure.
“This cyberinfrastructure initiative is crucial for advancing our region’s technological capabilities and ensuring we remain competitive in the global digital landscape,” said Sean Cleveland, UH System’s interim director of cyberinfrastructure and project principal investigator. “By investing in local talent and encouraging collaboration among institutions, we are not only advancing scientific research and education but also creating a foundation for innovations that will benefit our workforce and communities.”
University leaders said the project will support collaborative research across disciplines by providing access to computational resources, data repositories, and communication networks that will enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of scientific and engineering research, scholarship, and education.
“Building human capacity to support advanced cyberinfrastructure is the critical catalyst to sustaining long-term growth in leading edge computational and data centered research throughout the Pacific region,” said UH VP for IT and Chief Information Officer Garret Yoshimi. “Collaboration among our partners will effectively extend the beneficial impacts throughout our research communities.”
To achieve its goals, the projects will use the NSF grant funding to hire cyber infrastructure professionals at partner institutions that will work collaboratively to support cyber infrastructure needs in the region. The project aims to train and embed more than 200 undergraduates and 15 graduate students that will apply advanced cyber infrastructure technologies and methods to cutting edge research projects.
Additionally, the project will host more than 100 workshops along with new curriculum modules to increase cyber infrastructure awareness and skills across numerous research domains.
The initiative will also introduce more than 100 workshops along with new curriculum modules to increase cyber infrastructure awareness and skills across numerous research domains. Looking to the future, project leaders said they anticipate that the model of shared cyber infrastructure expertise, leading practices and strategies developed will be shared with other communities and institutions nationwide, ultimately extending the impact beyond the Pacific region.
