Education, Outreach & Training

Evolving the cyberinfrastructure

EOT worked in parallel with the Grand Challenge teams to create DNA Subway, an educational Discovery Environment for gene annotation and comparison. DNA Subway uses the metaphor of a subway map as an appealing interface to sophisticated informatics tools. “Riding” on different lines, students can predict and annotate genes in up to 150 kilobases of DNA (Red Line), identify related sequences in whole genomes (Yellow Line), or analyze DNA barcodes and other short DNA sequences (Blue Line). A Green Line will repackage the iPG2P workflow for the analysis of high-throughput RNA data.

EOT is applying its design expertise to create intuitive interfaces and simplified workflows that make iPlant cyberinfrastructure available to a range of users in research and education. Adding value to iPlant tools and services requires that we keep potential audiences up-to-date on their development, make them readily available, improve their usability at varying levels of expertise, and illustrate the kinds of research questions they can answer.

Disseminating the cyberinfrastructure

Dissemination focuses on developing a cohort of early adopters of iPlant Discovery Environments, tools, and services. Recruitment efforts and training materials are tailored to several target audiences: developers, super-users, researchers, educators, post-docs, and graduate students. Dissemination activities for researchers and developers include:

• Data-to-Publication (D2P) Workshops to which researchers, post-docs and graduate students bring their own data, and leave with analyses and insights suitable for publication.
• Hack-a-thons at which Super-users and science-savvy developers work in groups to expand iPlant tools and services.
• Seminars and "road shows" introduce iPlant tools and services to a range of potential users at research and academic institutions around the country.
• Mini-Workshops at professional meetings provide hands-on introduction to iPlant tools and services.  Workshop Listing

Dissemination activities for high school and college faculty include:

• 2-day workshops held across the United States to introduce faculty how to use DNA Subwayto explore novel data, as well as develop key concepts of genomic biology. The analysis of DNA barcodes blends lab work and bioinformatics.
• An Orphan Data interface will match under-worked data sets with students and faculty who would like to contribute to original research. Workshop Listing