ARCHIVED: About XSEDE Campus Bridging

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure Task Force on Campus Bridging, led by Craig A. Stewart of Indiana University, develops management strategies and software tools for enabling excellent usability of cyberinfrastructure (CI) on the campus, regional, national, and international levels.

The task force has defined Campus Bridging as...

"...the seamlessly integrated use of cyberinfrastructure operated by a scientist or engineer with other cyberinfrastructure on the scientist's campus, at other campuses, and at the regional, national, and international levels, as if they were proximate to the scientist, and when working within the context of a Virtual Organization (VO) make the 'virtual' aspect of the organization irrelevant (or helpful) to the work of the VO."

For the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), Campus Bridging provides software and training tools that create excellent interoperation between XSEDE resources, excellent usability for researchers, and an overall better use of the nation's aggregate CI resources.

XSEDE Campus Bridging strategy recommends implementing the InCommon global federated authentication system to improve coherence between national and campus CIs. Other XSEDE Campus Bridging recommendations include:

• Working with the XSEDE architecture group to communicate architecture choices and user requirements to XSEDE researchers
• Providing training and documentation to help researchers navigate the gap between local campus CI and national level CI
• Providing installers for tools to manage transfers of research data
• Providing software installers and best practices that let local campus administrators implement CI resources that look similar to national level resources

As new tools and capabilities are made available, XSEDE Campus Champions will help campus researchers integrate them into their work.

For more, see XSEDE Campus Bridging, IU's Campus Bridging and Research Infrastructure, and the Campus Bridging task force's final report, which includes strategic and tactical recommendations to the NSF, US higher education community, and commercial service providers for enabling bridging among different CIs.