Institution Name: NCSA

Work Package Title: IC

Project Title: Information and Communications Technologies

POC: Ms. Sandra Kappes (NCSA)

Email Address: skappes@ncsa.uiuc.edu

Telephone: (217) 244-2170 Fax: (217) 244-1987

CTA or PEI: Information and Communications

Project Description: The ARL MSRC PET team and MSRC HPC users need to be able to effectively utilize state-of-the-art information and communication technologies. These technologies facilitate the communication, coordination, and training necessary to support this distributed workforce. The goal of this project is to test, evaluate and deploy technologies to meet the needs of the ARL MSRC PET team and MSRC users. Existing needs include support for development of PET website content, web-based course materials, and asynchronous collaboration tools. Additional needs will be identified through interaction with the PET community.

Project Objectives: Interact with the PET user community to determine I/C support needs. This interaction will be conducted via face-to-face meetings, a I/C discussion space, and user surveys. Publish information about I/C activities via the I/C web pages. Provide broad-based support to the PET team and MSRC users in state-of-the-art communication and collaboration technologies. Provide expertise and assistance for enhancing the CEWES PET web site. Continue maintenance and updates to the I/C web pages content.

Deliverables: Specific deliverables for Year 3 include:

1. Evaluations, recommendations, and training on web technologies for PET website enhancements and to support CTA web content developers (G1B)
2. Evaluation of selected training systems (G3) in cooperation with NPAC, and deployment based on evaluation results
3. Test and evaluate selected tools for comparison with Tango capabilities. (G2B)- NCSA works with NPAC for testing and evaluation, and with on-site InfoComm and Training staff for deployment
4. Evaluations, recommendations, and CTA technical support for development of asynchronous web-based training course and web-page content (G5A)

Customers / End Users: This work is being done for the ARL PET Management, CTA Leads, and MSRC HPC users.

Benefit to Warfighter: This project will have an indirect benefit to the warfighter through enhanced productivity and effectiveness of PET team members and HPC users enabled by information and communications technologies.

Project Dependencies and Scope: This project depends significantly on the contributions of the ARL PET Team. The PET Team will provide contributions toward the user requirements for collaboration and utilization and feedback of new components as they become available.

Risk Element: In Year 3, the estimated probability of achieving the results expected is 90%. Delivery of the technologies is relatively straightforward. Their actual utilization is the primary risk involved. Careful selection of collaborative activities to serve as test beds for collaborative tools implementation and technical support will ensure the success of this project.

Required Funding Level: