WHEN: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

WHERE:   University of Alaska Fairbanks Wood Center

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Office of Information Technology is sponsoring a day-long symposium, Cyberinfrastructure Day, to draw attention to the wide span of research, higher education and community outreach at UAF that rely on cyberinfrastructure. Activities will also highlight the challenges and opportunities that go along with this next generation of technology and focus especially on how those technologies are put to use at UAF. Programs will showcase speakers on topics ranging from cyberinfrastructure across disciplines to eResearch and robotics, and will highlight and demonstrate the latest collaborative environments. The symposium will feature speakers from NASA, the Research Channel, Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, Geophysical Institute, International Arctic Research Center and the Alaska Earthquake Information Center.

What is cyberinfrastructure?

Cyberinfrastructure is a new buzzword introduced by the National Science Foundation in 2003. It describes new research environments that support advanced data acquisition, storage, management, integration, data mining, visualization and other computing and information processing services which take place over the Internet. In scientific usage, cyberinfrastructure is a technological solution to the problem of efficiently connecting data, computers and people with the goal of enabling derivation of novel scientific theories and knowledge.

Like the physical infrastructure of roads, bridges, power grids, telephone lines and water systems that support modern society, cyberinfrastructure refers to the distributed computer, information and communication technologies combined with the personnel and integrating components that provide a long-term platform to empower the modern scientific research endeavor. Source: Report of the National Science Foundation Blue-Ribbon Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure

What does cyberinfrastructure have to do with me?

Cyberinfrastructure is the name for the large scale networking infrastructure that other elements rely upon to operate effectively. An infrastructure is an underlying framework that enables a group, organization or society to function in certain ways, such as the series of pipes, drains, and water sources that comprise a water system. Cyberinfrastructure has and will continue to have a vast effect on educational systems worldwide. Cyberinfrastructure is taking the world of education to a digital level.