Overview of ESS Basic Research and Human Resources Activities

Project Goal and Objectives: One goal of the ESS basic research and human resources activities is to develop a pool of personnel trained in the HPCC technical areas who are available to further develop the technologies pioneered by the Project. Another goal is to apply HPCC technology to assist with the education process. A third goal is to enable HPCC to channel and tap the research resources in U.S. universities for the benefit of the program.

Strategy and Approach: The strategy is to provide modest support in selected areas in both basic research and in education and to assure coupling of the research from start to finish with mainstream NASA activities so that every opportunity is provided for the researcher to work on a problem of value to NASA and for NASA to receive the products of the research.

• CESDIS University Research Program in Parallel Computing--a basic research program at selected U.S. universities targeting two key areas of major importance to NASA HPCC: (1) parallel input/output systems and (2) parallel database and data management systems.
• NASA Summer School in High Performance Computational Physics--an intensive three-week program of lectures and lab sessions held at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in the summer for the purpose of training young Earth and space scientists in massively parallel techniques.
• NASA Graduate Student Research Fellowships--a proposal program affording up to 3 years of graduate study support for selected students whose proposals rank very high in quality and are relevant to NASA's mission.
• National Research Council Post Doctoral Fellowships--a proposal program providing up to 2 years of post doctoral support at a NASA field center for highly qualified researchers already at the doctoral level.

Organization:

• CESDIS University Research Program in Parallel Computing--awards are made as CESDIS subcontracts. The HPCC-supported CESDIS Associate Director facilitates the technology/environment transfer between the researcher and NASA.
• NASA Summer School in High Performance Computational Physics--16 students are selected through a national solicitation performed by USRA and brought to GSFC. The GSFC/ESS Inhouse Team as well as guest lecturers serve as instructors.
• NASA Graduate Student Research Fellowships--GSFC identifies a mentor for each student and encourages the student to spend some time at the field center with the mentor each year.
• National Research Council Post Doctoral Fellowships--GSFC facilitates collaboration opportunities for the researcher.

Management Plan: At GSFC, the ESS Project Manager directs sub-element activities. At JPL, a Deputy Task Leader performs the same function.

Points of Contact:

Jim Fischer
Goddard Space Flight Center
fischer@jacks.gsfc.nasa.gov
301-286-3465

Robert Ferraro
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
ferraro@zion.jpl.nasa.gov
818-354-1340