Solutions Network

Introduction

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has charged the Mississippi Research Consortium (MRC) with developing a set of solutions designed to meet and further the goals of NASA’s Earth Science Applications Program and Earth Science Enterprise by harvesting the results of research sponsored by the NASA Science Mission Directorate’s Research and Analysis Program.

The goals of this harvesting approach are four fold:
· 1) to assess the potential of research results to further contribute to new solutions in applied sciences projects
· 2) examine the current Earth science community and identify and analyze the interactions between organizations within the community
· 3) formulate an evolution plan to optimize the effectiveness of the science research network
· 4) deliver systems engineering capacity to extend the benefits of these and other research-to-operations solutions

Project Description

The MRC project team, which is lead by Mississippi State University, also includes the University of Mississippi, Spatial Information Solutions (SIS) of Starkville, Mississippi, the Institute for Technology Development (ITD) at Stennis Space Center, Science Systems and Applications, Inc. (SSAI) at Stennis Space Center, and Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) also at Stennis Space Center. The partners have worked closely together to develop solutions which meet the goals of the Earth Science Applications Program. Additional requirements state that any potential solution must be in-line and compatible with NASA’s Enterprise Architecture (EA), which is built upon Metis. Furthermore, each solution must be transportable across the various NASA centers and the results be web-deployable. Initially, the MRC project team conducted an examination of a set of existing tools which were aimed at providing analogous solutions to the Earth science community, such as the Missions to Models (M2M) database – commonly referred to as the Coin Card Chart - the Earth Science Architecture Tool (ESAT), and the Earth Science Enterprise Network Diagram. The set of MRC solutions will continue these data streams and extend the capabilities of the overall solution. The MRC partners have set forth a work-share plan that distributes amongst the partners responsibility for meeting the individual requirements.

The Research Projects Knowledge Base (RPKB) is being developed jointly by SIS and Mississippi State University with collaboration from the other MRC partners. The RPKB architecture will consist of a relational database back end, middleware and web server, and front end client interfaces for data entry and data-mining. A fully operational RPKB will be populated with research results and provide advanced data-mining techniques which will analyze research results for potential candidates for transition from research to operations or solutions that improve decision support systems. Additional content includes information on solicitations and proposals, principal investigators, and publication authors. These are all tied together to provide an assessment of the network of awarded research and the results derived from said awards. Additionally, links to NASA’s Earth science assets (observation systems, sensors, models, data products, etc.) have been established through the afore mentioned existing tools. This robust collection of data combined with advanced data-mining and web-search tools will enable researchers to harvest results and identify potential candidates for new research projects.

Figure 1: A wire diagram detailing the inputs to and outputs from RPKB

The Partnership Network Knowledge Base (PNKB) is being developed jointly by the MRC Stennis partners Institute for Technology Development, Science Systems and Applications, Inc., and Computer Sciences Corporation with collaboration from the other MRC partners. The purpose of the PNKB is to provide connectivity and deliver content for the research information needs of NASA’s Applied Science Program and related scientific communities of practice. PNKB, too, will consist of a relational database back end, middleware and web server, and front end client interfaces for data entry and data-mining. Data has been collected which will permit users to identify and analyze the current network of interactions between organizations within the community of practice, harvest research results fixed to those exchanges, and identify potential collaborative opportunities to further research streams. The PNKB will assemble information on funded research institutions and categorize the research emphasis of each as it relates to NASA’s 6 major science focus areas and 12 national applications. The PNKB will include information about organizations that conduct NASA Earth Science research such as, principal investigators’ affiliation, contact information, relationship-type with NASA and other NASA partners, funding arrangements, and formal agreements like memoranda-of-understanding. To further the utility of the PNKB, relational links have been integrated into the RPKB. The intended target audiences of the PNKB are the research community, who could find potential research collaborators and understand the existing relationships, as well as NASA program management who will be able to examine the network and identify gaps or overlaps within research focus areas or institutions.

In the development of the RPKB and PNKB the Mississippi Research Consortium wanted to understand the methods research scientists employed when conducting a investigation for new ideas, collaborators, and/or data and the tools they used in their explorations. For this purpose the University of Mississippi, with collaboration from the other MRC partners, developed a user needs survey which attempted to answer those questions. The goals of the survey were to determine how researchers are currently locating information about NASA-related and/or NASA-funded research information before writing a proposal, determine what tools (web applications, search engines etc.) researchers employ when reviewing NASA Earth-Sun Science research, identify user information requirements for new tools, gather information for characterizing and communicating the current state of NASA Earth Science research network partnerships. A questionnaire was designed and distributed to approximately 500 respondents drawn from government, commercial, and educational institutions and a total of 42 people responded to the survey. Respondents represented each of the institution categories, science focus areas, and national applications. Respondents were asked to provide information by answering a total of 16 questions. Useful information was taken from this survey and used when designing RPKB and PNKB.

Figure 3: Respondents answers to a survey question about which types of information are critical for a useful research tool.

Figure 4: Respondents answers to a survey question about where partnership networks information is currently lacking.

Because the Earth science research community continually evolves, grows, and generates new research results and knowledge, a plan to continue the evolution of the Solutions Networks including the Research Project Knowledge Base and the Partnership Network Knowledge Base, will be devised. The plan will incorporate information technologies and solutions to allow for dynamic update of information and be readily upgradeable. Consideration will be given to new and developing technologies, expanded data access points and content, data exchange, partner agency population growth, new collaborations and organization connectivity, and ever increasing body of research information. The evolution plan will also judge the systems engineering solutions for long term viability. The Mississippi Research Consortium also continues to investigate developments in various other Solutions Networks programs in an effort to further understanding of users’ needs, establish associations which can spawn ideas for enhancement, and serve as a quality assurance and user acceptance test group.

Conclusions

The project life span for this program extends through July 2007. As final reports and accepted applications become available, links will be made to this webpage.

For information about this or any other current research, contact us.