Conference: Inaugural Tribal College and University CI Community of Practice Workshop

The Tribal College and University Cyberinfrastructure Community of Practice workshop provides an opportunity for the IT Directors, CIOs, and other administrators, IT staff or faculty at TCUs, who are geographically isolated across the United States, to meet in person, exchange best practices, interact with invited national cyberinfrastructure (CI) experts, and collaborate across TCU CI initiatives, academic areas, and/or geographical regions. The workshop is organized by the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) and led by a program committee consisting of AIHEC, TCU and external experts. Cyberinfrastructure topic areas expected to be addressed through both presentations and in-depth panel discussions include CI Strategic Planning and Academic Engagement, Cybersecurity and Technology, TCU Future Directions and CI Funding Strategies. Workshop panelist and presenters come from the TCUs’ IT staff and faculty but also include external subject matter expects and research and education community members. The intellectual merit of the workshop includes the opportunity for TCU staff knowledge and skill development focused on new and existing cyberinfrastructure technologies in support of science and engineering applications relevant to the tribal community. Given the important role the TCUs play in their communities, implementation of capacity-building relationships with TCUs will enable them to serve a similar function to their area K-12 schools and Tribal agencies, advancing them through the adoption of the shared CI tools and resources. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.