Julie Wernert

The Cyberinfrastructure Leadership Academy (CILA) addresses a critical gap in the Research Computing and Data (RCD) ecosystem: the preparation and transition of emerging/institution-level Cyberinfrastructure (CI) leaders to national CI leadership, as a generation of experienced CI leaders retires. Instead of focusing primarily on technical skill acquisition, CILA emphasizes leadership, strategy, mentoring, and community-building across institution-level, regional, and national scales. Drawing on five workshops conducted between 2019 and 2025, this paper synthesizes CILA’s design elements, cross-cutting themes, and evaluation outcomes. We frame CILA as a workforce development and leadership intervention, highlighting effective practices for mentoring, leadership development, stakeholder engagement, and sustaining resilient CI communities. Evaluation results demonstrate CILA’s strong impact on participants’ professional networks, leadership confidence, and ability to influence institution-level and national CI strategy.

The CI-PIVOT project, a collaboration between Indiana University, Purdue, and Mississippi State, addresses the gap between complex HPC/AI resources and domain researchers by transforming science experts into embedded Cyberinfrastructure Professionals (CIPs). Through an 18-month cohort model, this project establishes a scalable framework for professionalizing the CIP role, providing insights into training that can be generalized across the broader research ecosystem.

This paper investigates the return on investment (ROI) in cyberinfrastructure (CI) facilities and services by comparing the value of end products created to the cost of operations. We assessed the cost of a US CI facility called XSEDE and the value of the end products created using this facility, categorizing end products according to the International Integrated Reporting Framework. The US federal government invested approximately $0.3B in operating the XSEDE ecosystem from 2016–2022. The estimated value of end products facilitated by XSEDE ranges from around $4.7B to $22.7B or more. Credit for the majority of these end products is shared among various contributors, including the XSEDE ecosystem. Granting the XSEDE ecosystem a seemingly reasonable percentage of credit for its contributions to end product creation suggests that the return on federal investment in the XSEDE ecosystem, in terms of value of end products created, was greater than one and possibly far greater than one. The Framework proved useful for addressing this question. Earlier work showed that the value of services provided by XSEDE was significantly greater than the cost of those services to the US federal government—a positive return on investment for delivery of services. Analyzing the financial efficiency of operations and the financial value of end products are two means for assessing the success of CI facilities in financial terms. Financial analyses should be used as one of many approaches for evaluating the success of CI facilities.

This paper uses accounting concepts—particularly the concept of Return on Investment (ROI)—to reveal the quantitative value of scientific research pertaining to a major US cyberinfrastructure project (XSEDE—the eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment). XSEDE provides operational and support services for advanced information technology systems, cloud systems, and supercomputers supporting non-classified US research, with an average budget for XSEDE of US$20M+ per year over the period studied (2014–2021). To assess the financial effectiveness of these services, we calculated a proxy for ROI, and converted quantitative measures of XSEDE service delivery into financial values using costs for service from the US marketplace. We calculated two estimates of ROI: a Conservative Estimate, functioning as a lower bound and using publicly available data for a lower valuation of XSEDE services; and a Best Available Estimate, functioning as a more accurate estimate, but using some unpublished valuation data. Using the largest dataset assembled for analysis of ROI for a cyberinfrastructure project, we found a Conservative Estimate of ROI of 1.87, and a Best Available Estimate of ROI of 3.24. Through accounting methods, we show that XSEDE services offer excellent value to the US government, that the services offered uniquely by XSEDE (that is, not otherwise available for purchase) were the most valuable to the facilitation of US research activities, and that accounting-based concepts hold great value for understanding the mechanisms of scientific research generally.

Under normal circumstances, when students invest more effort in their schoolwork, they generally show evidence of improved academic achievement. But when universities abruptly transitioned to remote instruction in Spring 2020, instructors assigned rapidly-prepared online learning activities, disrupting the normal relationship between effort and outcomes. In this study, we examine this relationship using data observed from a large-scale survey of undergraduate students, from logs of student activity in the online learning management system, and from students’ estimated cumulative performance in their courses (n = 4,636). We find that there was a general increase in the number of assignments that students were expected to complete following the transition to remote instruction, and that students who spent more time and reported more effort carrying out this coursework generally had lower course performance and reported feeling less successful. We infer that instructors, under pressure to rapidly put their course materials online, modified their courses to include online busywork that did not constitute meaningful learning activities, which had a detrimental effect on student outcomes at scale. These findings are discussed in contrast with other situations when increased engagement does not necessarily lead to improved learning outcomes, and in comparison with the broader relationship between effort and academic achievement.

We present a set of common themes and recommendations extracted from in depth interviews with the leaders of 12 distinct cyberinfrastructure software projects. These interviews were conducted as part of a larger study to identify and elucidate the best practices and management models that lead to sustainability for cyberinfrastructure software. Respondents in a formal survey of cyberinfrastructure users identified these projects as good examples of sustained software initiatives. While there is clearly no single method or plan that will guarantee sustainability for all projects, we can draw general guidance from these exemplars. This paper presents the common themes, ideas, and recommendations that emerged from those interviews.