Section 3.4.  EOT-PACI 
In FY98, the Education, Outreach and Training Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (EOT-PACI) formed teams working in the areas of Education, Access and Inclusion, Learning Technologies, Government and New Communities, and Evaluation. In FY99, EOT-PACI partners undertook a strategic planning process to focus and align team objectives and efforts to the goals of EOT-PACI and the two NSF PACI partnerships.
 
EOT-PACI goals are to: 1) demonstrate the use of NSF PACI technologies and resources among diverse audiences by leveraging NSF PACI thrusts/team efforts; 2) increase participation of under-represented groups, including persons with disabilities, in computer science and engineering, information technology, and NSF PACI; and 3) enable broad national impact in education, government, science, business and society with systemic, sustainable, scalable programs. 

EOT-PACI links target communities to the goals of both NSF PACI partnerships. EOT-PACI partners work with Application Technologies (AT) and Enabling Technologies (ET) thrusts/teams to engage diverse audiences in applying NSF PACI technologies and resources to provide feedback to the developers. Engagement of these audiences will occur through establishment of Grid testbeds for K-12, undergraduate/graduate, and government users. Feedback on the usability, scalability, and sustainability of NSF PACI resources from communities will be provided in FY00-FY02.

EOT-PACI has initiated strategic collaborations beyond NSF PACI to leverage NSF PACI resources and scale successful programs. In FY00, EOT-PACI will strengthen efforts to demonstrate applications of NSF PACI technologies and resources in education and government through the addition of BioQUEST, SRI International Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT), UIUC and Oregon State as new partners, and by involving federally funded peer-reviewed programs within the Grid testbeds.

Dissemination will continue to be accomplished by identifying and publicizing exemplary uses of NSF PACI technologies within the EOT testbeds and programs using the EOT-PACI website (http://www.eot.org/) and through publications, newsletter and journal articles, and presentations at local, state and national conferences.
Section 3.4.1.  Education
Section 3.4.1.1.  FY99 Accomplishments
Teacher training programs by Maryland Virtual High School, Alabama Supercomputing Program to Inspire Computational Research in Education (ASPIRE), OSC, SDSC, NCSA and Rice used NSF PACI technologies, modeling and simulation in K-12 curriculum. NSF PACI tools were used in workshops and classes by the Shodor Foundation, the Education Center on Computational Science and Engineering at SDSU (EdCenter), NCSA and SDSC to introduce undergraduate faculty and professionals to emerging technologies and computational science and engineering (CS&E) content. The team leveraged NSF PACI expertise in support of federally funded national education programs including: the Minority Graduate Education program; the Urban Systemic Initiatives (Houston, Chicago, Detroit); the Alliance for Minority Participation; the Biology Student Workbench NSF/DUE program; the Shodor SCSI NSF/DUE program; and the RiverWeb Museum Consortium.
Section 3.4.1.2.  FY00 Plans
EOT-PACI will host a workshop of national leaders in education, computational science, and educational policy to develop national strategies and collaborative testbeds to integrate computational science into K-12 inservice and preservice curriculum. The EOT-PACI undergraduate and graduate teams will conduct workshops to assist CS&E testbed programs to integrate NSF PACI technologies and tools into their curriculum and research practices, and to disseminate exemplary uses of computational science in research and education through the EOT repository.
Section 3.4.2.  Access and Inclusion (A&I)
Section 3.4.2.1.  FY99 Accomplishments
EOT is committed to attracting and retaining the next generation of capability computing users and information technology leaders. This includes women and minorities and persons with disabilities (referred to as A&I target groups). Inclusion of A&I target groups was accomplished through programs that address filling the pipeline by working with A&I target youth. Programs in CS&E included Spend a Summer with a Scientist, Coalition to Diversify Computing (CDC) and the Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W). Other NSF PACI programs included the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. EOT-PACI has pursued collaborations with the Executive Leadership Foundation and is establishing a Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) program, in which EOT has partnered with EDUCAUSE to secure NSF funding for a program to begin in FY00.
Section 3.4.2.2.  FY00 Plans
The MSI program will engage MSIs in the effective use of information technology and NSF PACI resources by working to extend Grid testbeds to MSIs. EOT will host events to springboard testbed activities among MSIs, engage MSI participants in NSF PACI Teams and programs, conduct a survey to identify MSI community strengths in computational science programs, and evaluate infrastructure requirements to link to the Grid. Pyramids of mentors are being established to integrate Access and Inclusion (A&I) activities, in which past program participants advise current participants. Successful programs are being scaled. GirlTech will be scaled up at four NSF PACI partner sites (UNM, MHPCC, UIUC and SDSC) and the Spend a Summer with a Scientist program will be scaled up at UWisc. REU students will be brought together with CRA-W and CDC students through interactions with NSF PACI Teams, EOT-PACI programs, and HPC-related conferences. EOT-PACI will work with NSF PACI Teams to help ensure that the emerging technologies are accessible to people with disabilities.
Section 3.4.3.  Learning Technologies
Section 3.4.3.1.  FY99 Accomplishments
NSF PACI tools have been used in collaborative and distributed learning technologies and as the drivers in developing efforts to support applications across the partnerships. Efforts have included educational activities at NCSA and partner sites, inclusion of MSIs in distributed education programs, distributed learning programs to educate youth on NSF PACI technologies, and to support of integration with AT workbenches.
Section 3.4.3.2.  FY00 Plans
Experiments will continue to evaluate the usefulness of NSF PACI collaborative and distributed learning environments. Tools developed by the Learning through Evaluation, Adaptation and Dissemination (LEAD) Center [UWisc] will support the evaluation efforts. EOT-PACI will participate in a year-long study by the National Institute for Science Education (NISE), which will develop strategies for providing college-level instructors with convenient access to and information about the best educational technology resources available on the Web.
Section 3.4.4.  New Communities
Section 3.4.4.1.  FY99 Accomplishments
The government team secured digital government grants to work with the Federal Consortium and hosted workshops to open communications about High Performance Computing (HPC) resources with a national audience of decision makers. These workshops made it clear that common needs exist for government and social scientists. One workshop resulted in the report, “Some Assembly Required: Building a Digital Government for the 21st Century.” The report is accessible online at (http://www.ctg.albany.edu/research/workshop/dgfinalreport.pdf).
Section 3.4.4.2.  FY00 Plans
A workshop focusing on the use of technology by government and new communities will take place, involving humanities and social science researchers and government agencies. The involvement of AT and ET teams/thrust researchers will help identify new communities of users interested in NSF PACI technologies and in participating in undergraduate/graduate and government testbeds. Technologies that can meet the needs of these new users include data mining, knowledge management, collaboration environments, modeling, visualization, and Geographic Information System (GIS). 
Section 3.4.5.  Evaluation
Section 3.4.5.1.  FY99 Accomplishments
The LEAD Center has provided evaluation and consultation services to assist the EOT- PACI leadership and individual programs in achieving their goals. The LEAD Center has evaluated the EdCenter at SDSU and provided guidance on the strategic planning process performed in FY99. The program evaluation that The LEAD Center performed in FY98 of the Spend a Summer with a Scientist and GirlTech programs has played a valuable role in leveraging the scale-up of these programs in support of additional Education and Access and Inclusion programs.
Section 3.4.5.2.  FY00 Plans
The LEAD Center will work with all EOT-PACI Teams to provide guidance, guidelines and sample instruments that will enable teams to conduct their own effective formative and summative evaluations. The LEAD Center will disseminate evaluation findings, lessons learned, and guidelines for success for previously evaluated EOT-PACI projects. The Center will evaluate the Teacher Preparation in Technology Workshop as part of the K-12 Team’s long-term effort to encourage the incorporation of modeling and visualization tools into teacher preparation programs and testbeds nationwide. It will also participate in NISE’s year-long Institute on Learning Technology. 
Section 3.4.6.  Alliance-Specific EOT-PACI Activities
Alliance EOT will support capability computing by: 1) developing computationally and data intensive demonstration projects with government agencies and MSIs; 2) linking MSI testbed researchers with the NCSA/PACS partners to solve large-scale computational and data-intensive problems; and 3) educating the next generation of users. 

Alliance EOT-PACI will assist in building the Grid by: 1) creating Access Grid testbeds for K-12, undergraduate/graduate (including MSIs) educators and government; 2) communicating to the Access Grid Team the EOT-PACI testbed service and support requirements, including QoS, security, distributed collaborative learning, video streaming, immersive visualization, and Globus services; and 3) integrating commercial software and enabling applications in EOT-PACI Grid environments. 

EOT-PACI’s Common Portal Architecture (CPA) effort consists of: 1) identifying education and training requirements for portals (e.g. AT workbenches); 2) setting requirements for collaboration, component software architectures, and tracking of user patterns; 3) ensuring that the portal tracks the user’s expertise and interests; and 4) applying CPA technology on the EOT-PACI website.