Draft date:  February 12, 2000

OITI Survey on Infrastructure Needs in Ocean Information and Technology (SINOIT)



A. 	Professional information 

	1. 	Your highest degree (BS, MS, PhD)

	2.	Institution (Academic / Research lab / Industry / Government)

3.	Discipline (Physical Oceanography, Biological Oceanography, Marine Chemistry, Marine Geology, Marine Meteorology, Interdisciplinary)

4.	If you are responding for a group (e.g., research group or department), please identify the approximate number of group members in each of the following categories:

	    Ph.D. faculty (academic)
	    Ph.D. faculty (research)
	    Ph.D. staff
	    MS staff
	    Postdocs
	    Graduate students
	    Undergraduate students




B. 	Current ITI Resource Utilization  

	1.	What ITI resources are you using for your current projects?

	a) 	Computational (monthly usage, hours)

	O(100)     O(1000)	    O(10000)   
	PCs/workstations
	supercomputer (serial)
	supercomputer (parallel)
	Beowulf cluster (cpu hrs)
	Other (pls specify)

	b) 	Total memory (mbytes):  10 / 100 / 1000 / >1000 (pls specify)

	c) 	Dataset archival (monthly production, gigabytes):  0.1 / 1.0 / 10.0 / 100.0

	d) 	Data tranferred over Internet (monthly, gigabytes): 0.1 / 1.0 / 10.0 /100.0

e) 	Are these ITI resources adequate to conduct your current research in an optimal manner?  If not, which are not sufficient, and why not?
	




C. 	Current Scope of Work 

1. 	Briefly describe the types of research problems on which you are working	(e.g., eddy-resolving global ocean modeling, coupled physical/biological models, real-time state estimation, dataset analysis/visualization, etc.)

2. 	Do your projects involve real-time infrastructure needs (e.g., real-time access to and/or transfer of remote datasets, etc.)?  If so, please describe these needs briefly.

	3. 	What types of models/analyses do you utilize:
	a) 	models: diagnostic / QG / PE / reduced gravity / other (pls specify)
	b) 	spatial coverage: 1D / 2D / 3D / regional / global
	c) 	temporal duration: days / months / years / decades / centuries and longer
d) 	advanced analysis tools: feature recognition, 3D visualization, multi-dimensional statistical analysis, other (pls specify)




D. 	Future ITI Resource Utilization

1.	What ITI resources would you require to conduct your future research in an efficient manner (5-10 years)?

	a) 	Computational (monthly usage, hours)

	O(100)     O(1000)	O(10000)   
	PCs/workstations
	supercomputer (serial)
	supercomputer (parallel)
	Beowulf cluster (cpu hrs)
	Other (please specify)

b) 	Total memory (mbytes):  10 / 100 / 1000 / >1000 (pls specify)

c) 	Data set archival (monthly production, gigabytes):  0.1 / 1.0 / 10.0 / 100.0

d) 	Data transferred over Internet (monthly, gigabytes): 0.1 / 1.0 / 10.0 / 100.0

e) 	What human resources, in addition to those already available to you, would be required to use these resources efficiently (programmers, postdocs, computer specialists, consultants, etc.)?

f) 	What new software tools would be required (e.g., numerical algorithms, visualization software, parallelization tools, etc.)?

g) 	What ITI-intensive research issues would you tackle, that you cannot do now, if additional resources were available?  Please describe the likely benefits to this research of enhanced ITI resources.

h) 	Which ITI-intensive research questions do you think the ocean science community as a whole ought to tackle over the next few years?




E. 	Hub Functionality 


1.	How important to your research would the following functionalities be if offered by the "Hub" (i.e., how much would you use them?):

		Crucial      Useful    Unnecessary	Don't know

a) 	Community models
		i) 	code/documentation
		ii) 	on-line tutorials
		iii) 	support staff

b) 	Archival datasets
		i) 	numerical model outputs
		ii) 	raw datasets
		iii) 	synthetical datasets (gridded fields, etc.)

c) 	Hardware
		i) 	computational engines
		ii) 	mass storage
		ii) 	visualization/analysis 

d) 	Outreach
		i) 	on-site classes (at one of the Hub centers)
		ii) 	classes at your institution
		iii) 	development of science curricula




F. 	Hub Management and Outreach 

1.	How would you like to see the "Hub" managed?  In what type of institutional setting or settings should it be located?

2.	Which of these functionalities do you think are best delivered in a "centralized" facility?  How should the ITI resources be distributed (centrally, distributed, mixed)?

3.	What lessons can be learned from the distribution and management of current ITI resources?

4.	What benefits to the public at large could be achieved with enhanced ITI resources (e.g., general awareness, education, etc.)?

5.	Are there functionalities not listed above which you feel should be offered by the "Hub"?