The science gateway and online community nanoHUB hosts over 4000 technical resources related to nanoscience and nanotechnology and online capabilities for nano community engagement. nanoHUB also hosts over 500 online simulation tools. nanoHUB serves the nano community spectrum ranging from undergraduate students to high profile researchers. In this paper, the evolution of nanoHUB online simulation is discussed along with the impact of that simulation on student behavior. With over 52,000 simulation users, the nanoHUB team is not personally aware of most new classrooms that adopt simulation in their syllabi. Yet, these classroom users feed the next generation of nano community contributors. A method is presented to detect classroom by clustering coordinated behavior among simulation users, thereby automatically detecting adoption of simulation tools in a classroom environment. Several prototypical patterns of clustered behavior are analyzed, ranging from peripheral to systemic classroom integration of simulation. Visualizations of detailed user behavior illustrate the varying behavior structures. Between the fall of 2000 and the fall of 2011, in 846 clustered behaviors have been detected. This number of classroom settings is on a continuous growth trend as nanoHUB becomes more widely adopted. A discussion on the rate of adoption of published simulation tools in clustered behaviors is presented.
Neuroscientists are increasingly relying on parallel and distributed computing resources for analysis and visualization of their neuron simulations. This requires expert knowledge of programming and cyberinfrastructure configuration, which is beyond the repertoire of most neuroscience programs. This paper presents early experiences from development efforts of a next-generation science gateway for research and training purposes of novice/expert users. The development efforts were enabled by a one-credit graduate research training course titled ECE 8001 "Software and Cyber Automation in Neuroscience" at the University of Missouri for engendering multi-disciplinary collaborations between computational neuroscience and cyberinfrastructure students and faculty. Specifically, we discuss how the course organization has led to the exemplar outcomes involving design of a novel science gateway to support use cases with custom configurations with tools such as e.g., NEURON using both local campus resources and the Neuroscience Gateway resources. The ultimate goal of these efforts is to improve access to high-performance and distributed computing resources for a set of neuroscience research and education use cases.
The Materials Project (MP) has served as an effective dissemination platform for computational materials science data for nearly 8 years. In its capacity as a Science Gateway, it serves over 50,000 users from around the world with data on over 70,000 crystalline materials. In recent years, MP's growing popularity has been facilitated by educational resources developed by its core team and diligently maintained documentation of the methodology and provenance associated with its data. In this report, we highlight a recent effort by MP to standardize a set of educational materials for its user base in its annual \textit{Materials Project Workshop}, which was conducted in the summers of 2016 and 2017. More specifically, we describe our insights on how organization of material, presentation format, formative assessment, and active learning were integrated to produce an effective educational experience for our attendees. We also highlight the lessons we've learned, in the hopes other Science Gateway efforts may draw on our experiences in crafting their own educational and training resources.
