MSI-CIEC: MSI Cyberinfrastructure Empowerment Coalition and the TeraGrid Richard Alo 1 , Karl Barnes 2 , Diane Baxter 3 , Geoffrey Fox 4 , Al Kuslikis 5 , Calvin Lowe 2 , Alex Ramirez 6 , Selena Singleton 2 1) University of Houston Downtown, Center for Computational Science, One main street, suite 722 south, Houston, TX 77002 2) NAFEO: National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education http://www.nafeo.org 3) SDSC: San Diego Supercomputer Center, 9500 Gilman Drive, MC-0505, La Jolla, CA 92093-0505 4) Computer Science Department, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405 USA 5) AIHEC: The American Indian Higher Education Consortium http://www.aihec.org/ 6) HACU: Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities http://www.hacu.net Abstract We discuss some of the challenges and opportunities for Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) with the emergence of Cyberinfrastructure for science and engineering. We discuss the approach of MSI-CIEC (Cyberinfrastructure Empowerment Coalition) and pay particular attention to the TeraGrid. Introduction Cyberinfrastructure (CI) is enormously promising for the nation’s science and engineering enterprise and offers the opportunity of democratically benefiting all participants [2,3,6,8]. MSI-CIEC: MSI Cyberinfrastructure Empowerment Coalition MSI-Centered Capabilities • Links to 3 MSI areas and the Alliance • CI Linkage • Capabilities for specific domains such as Biology for Earth Science • MSI faculty staff student mentoring and advancement • MSI Institutional evaluation, planning, development • MSI Physical resources such as clusters Program Support Capabilities • Portal, Access Grid, Collaboration tools, Portal content (Support databases) • MSI CI Operations Center • Research programs and opportunities • REU, Fellowships etc. supporting other capabilities including MSI faculty staff student mentoring and advancement • Education and Training • Specific Programs and Identification of opportunities • Social and Behavioral research Operational and Internal Capabilities • External Relations • Government, Other MSI Projects, Relevant connections such as TeraGrid, NCSA, SDSC, TACC, SCxx • Outreach and Meetings • Evaluation and Internal Research • Administration & Operations MSI-CIEC: MSI Cyberinfrastructure Empowerment Coalition Projects with Multiple PI's: These use a selection of capabilities and include cases where MSI-CIEC has a lead or support role MSI-CI 2 is first MSI-CIECproject MSI-CIEC: MSI Cyberinfrastructure Empowerment Coalition Leadership team • Capability Leaders • PIs of Projects The Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) Cyberinfrastructure (CI) Empowerment Coalition, MSI- CIEC, is established to accelerate the advancement of e-science and CI, the development of a diverse CI-related science and engineering workforce, and to broaden access, participation, and appreciation for CI and e-science, particularly among traditionally underrepresented minority populations. The vision of MSI-CIEC is to advance science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and the participation of the nation’s underrepresented minorities in STEM, particularly e-science, and in the global STEM workforce through minority-serving institutions (MSI’s) and the emerging Cyberinfrastructure (CI). This defines a mission to build and enhance the social and technological mechanisms for meaningful engagement of MSI’s in