CC* planning: RE-constructing the campus cyberinfrastructure of a small, liberal arts hbcu in order to maximize stem innovation and integration

Texas College received a $100,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering federal grant program (CFDA 47.070). The award will support a planning activity to assess Texas College's current cyberinfrastructure, identify necessary elements to evolve its campus cyberinfrastructure to better support STEM research and education, document campus-wide cyberinfrastructure needs of researchers and students to drive future improvements, and produce an initial campus cyberinfrastructure plan. The grant period runs from May 1, 2022 to April 30, 2023. This planning grant will help Texas College, a small, liberal arts historically black college and university (HBCU), develop a roadmap to technologically enable a more advanced future and improve the quality of STEM and non-STEM education through leveraging cyberinfrastructure.

Abstract

Texas college is undertaking a planning activity allowing IT to complete an assessment of its current infrastructure, to identify the elements needed to evolve campus cyberinfrastructure (CI) to better support stem research and education, to understand and document campus-wide CI needs of researchers and students driving future CI improvements, and to produce an initial campus CI plan. Impact of this planning grant extends beyond texas college?s need for a carefully researched and prepared roadmap for technological infrastructure enabling a more advanced future. This activity also is an initial step toward improving the quality of the stem and non-stem education produced at texas college. Alternate learning styles can be accommodated via technology. Students with stem knowledge gaps can experience near-instant remediation. Culturally concordant examples can be tailored to reflect various sociocultural backgrounds within a classroom. Flight simulations can be used to teach physics and physical sciences. With a sufficient cyberinfrastructure, major barriers are removed from the intellectual expansion in how teaching and learning occurs. 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.