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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Drilling Down I/O Bottlenecks with Cross-layer I/O Profile Exploration

I/O performance monitoring tools such as Darshan and Recorder collect I/O-related metrics on production systems and help understand the applications' behavior. However, some gaps prevent end-users from seeing the whole picture when it comes to detecting and drilling down to the root causes of I/O performance slowdowns and where those problems originate. These gaps arise from limitations in the available metrics, their collection strategy, and the lack of translation to actionable items that could advise on optimizations. This paper highlights such gaps and proposes solutions to drill down to the source code level to pinpoint the root causes of I/O bottlenecks scientific applications face by relying on cross-layer analysis combining multiple performance metrics related to I/O software layers. We demonstrate with two real applications how metrics collected in high-level libraries (which are closer to the data models used by an application), enhanced by source-code insights and natural language translations, can help streamline the understanding of I/O behavior and provide guidance to end-users, developers, and supercomputing facilities on how to improve I/O performance. Using this cross-layer analysis and the heuristic recommendations, we attained up to 6.9× speedup from run-as-is executions.

Ather, Hammad↗
DOE OSTI2018

International Standards Development and Its Role in Transitioning D and D Technologies to Deployment - 18315

As the need to perform deactivation and decommissioning (D and D) of the most challenging nuclear facilities worldwide is growing, facilitating the integration of state-of-the-art, cutting edge technologies will be critically important to safely, effectively, and efficiently complete this mission. However, end users in the field face significant obstacles to integrating new technologies into cleanup initiatives. By leveraging the development of international standards and testing protocols, the risks associated with implementing new technologies can be mitigated and further support the need to update existing directives and guidance handbooks to account for the tremendous recent advancements in technology development. The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International's E10.03 Subcommittee on Radiological Protection for D and D of Nuclear Facilities and Components has begun the development of standard specifications and uniform testing protocols designed to support the nuclear industry's testing and evaluation requirements for D and D technologies. The vision of the E10.03 Subcommittee is to promulgate operationally relevant, uniform testing protocols that can be leveraged by the various technology innovation and development programs across the nuclear environmental management community, and support decision makers and end users with common references in the selection and employment of those standards and associated technologies. These standards could also serve as the basis for updating existing directives and guidance documents such as the various DOE handbooks to better account for the role of cutting edge technology, and facilitate / expedite lab to market efforts that result in improved returns on investment (ROIs) for technology development programs. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
NASA NTRS2011

Using NASA Remotely Sensed Data to Help Characterize Environmental Risk Factors for National Public Health Applications

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center is collaborating with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Public Health Informatics to address issues of environmental health and enhance public health decision making by utilizing NASA remotely sensed data and products. The objectives of this study are to develop high-quality spatial data sets of environmental variables, link these with public health data from a national cohort study, and deliver the linked data sets and associated analyses to local, state and federal end-user groups. Three daily environmental data sets will be developed for the conterminous U.S. on different spatial resolutions for the period 2003-2008: (1) spatial surfaces of estimated fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposures on a 10-km grid utilizing the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ground observations and NASA's MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data; (2) a 1-km grid of Land Surface Temperature (LST) using MODIS data; and (3) a 12-km grid of daily Solar Insolation (SI) using the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) forcing data. These environmental data sets will be linked with public health data from the UAB REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) national cohort study to determine whether exposures to these environmental risk factors are related to cognitive decline and other health outcomes. These environmental datasets and public health linkage analyses will be disseminated to end-users for decision making through the CDC Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) system.

Al-Hamdan, Mohammad↗
NASA NTRS2013

Public Health Applications of Remotely-sensed Environmental Datasets for the Conterminous United States

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center is collaborating with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Public Health Informatics to address issues of environmental health and enhance public health decision-making using NASA remotely-sensed data and products. The objectives of this study are to develop high-quality spatial data sets of environmental variables, link these with public health data from a national cohort study, and deliver the linked data sets and associated analyses to local, state and federal end-user groups. Three daily environmental data sets were developed for the conterminous U.S. on different spatial resolutions for the period 2003-2008: (1) spatial surfaces of estimated fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposures on a 10-km grid using the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ground observations and NASA's MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data; (2) a 1-km grid of Land Surface Temperature (LST) using MODIS data; and (3) a 12-km grid of daily Incoming Solar Radiation (Insolation) and heat-related products using the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) forcing data. These environmental data sets were linked with public health data from the UAB REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) national cohort study to determine whether exposures to these environmental risk factors are related to cognitive decline, stroke and other health outcomes. These environmental datasets and the results of the public health linkage analyses will be disseminated to end-users for decision-making through the CDC Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) system and through peer-reviewed publications respectively. The linkage of these data with the CDC WONDER system substantially expands public access to NASA data, making their use by a wide range of decision makers feasible. By successful completion of this research, decision-making activities, including policy-making and clinical decision-making, can be positively affected through utilization of the data products and analyses provided on the CDC WONDER system.

Al-Hamdan, Mohammad↗
DOE OSTI2015

The role of client engagement in successful project delivery - 15599

Projects, managed using one of the standard methodologies, are the primary vehicle used by most organizations to effectively deliver their strategic objectives in a timely and high quality manner. Most projects at ANSTO with a strong nuclear technology component require the active engagement of the end user, sponsor and subject matter experts for making key decisions during the project delivery phase to ensure best value for the organization. In 2009, after a review of ANSTO's project governance and management processes, a number of changes to the governance of internal projects were made. This included the establishment of a project governance structure that includes a two-point accountability framework, where the Project Client, together with the Project Manager is held accountable for the project delivery. While the two-point project accountability framework is not a conventional approach in project management, the experience from the project managers and stakeholders at ANSTO indicates that it provides a robust, consistent and practical approach for managing projects. The challenges of the two-point accountability framework are primarily related to the clarity of roles and goals, particularly from the Client perspective. This is an area that needs further attention. Overall, this approach allows better coordination of input from the project sponsors, end users and subject matter experts for day-to-day decision making through the life-cycle of the project. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

HydroSAR: A Cloud-based SAR Data Analysis Service to Monitor Hydrological Disasters and their Impact on Population and Agriculture

Weather-related hazards are ubiquitous around the world including: 1) hurricane storm surges, 2) rapid snowmelt and heavy rainfall, 3) severe weather leading to flash floods, and 4) seasonal freeze and thaw of rivers that may lead to ice jams. Each of these hazards affects human settlements and has the potential to impact agricultural productivity. In each setting, end-users in disaster management need access to data processing tools helpful in mapping past and current disasters. Analysis of past events supports risk mitigation by understanding what has already occurred and how to alleviate those impacts in the future. Having capabilities to generate the same products in a response setting means that lessons learned from risk analysis will carry forward to event response. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data are particularly useful for these activities due to their all-weather 24/7 monitoring capabilities. In this effort we present HydroSAR, a cloud-based SAR data analysis service for the mapping of meteorological and hydrological disasters as well as their impact on population and agriculture. As part of this project we have developed a series of SAR-based value added products for the monitoring of surface hydrology (image time series, change detection, flood extent, flood depth) and the assessment of impacts on population (flood depth) and agriculture (active agriculture, inundated agriculture, flood duration). We also developed a cloud-based platform for generating these products over affected areas and are working with end-users to integrate derived product into decision-making workflows The paper will briefly introduce the SAR-based products that were developed for this effort. We describe the cloud-based production pipeline that was built to automatically generate these products in near-real time over extended regions. The integration of SAR-based information into hazard preparation and response activities is described for a number of recent disasters including the 2019 forest fires in Alaska, 2019 flooding in the U.S. Midwest, the 2020 U.S. severe weather easter outbreak, 2020 tropical storm Christobal, 2020 cyclone Amphan, 2020, Alaska Spring breakup flooding, and the 2020 flood season in Eastern India, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

Franz Josef Meyer↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Operational and Archive Data Records: Surface Elevation Measurements of Lakes, Wetlands, and Rivers for Resources and Hazards

A NASA/USDA funded program offers satellite-derived products for lakes, reservoirs, river reaches, and wetland zones. These are currently being derived from the 10-day and monthly-resolution radar altimeter series. However, observational parameters from the laser based ICESat-2 mission, and the enhanced SWOT KaRIn instrument will also be integrated to meet various end user requirements. The resulting measurements will ultimately be a combination of surface water level and slope, surface water extent, water storage and basin bathymetry, plus a suite of Status Indicators which highlight deviations from long-term and seasonal averages. The main stakeholders are the USDA/Foreign Agricultural Service, the US Geological Survey, USACE/NGA, and various Wetland-related organizations. Applications centre on water and energy resources and fish-catch potential, and on natural hazards (floods and droughts). There is a demand for a global monitoring service, but primary focus is on regions where gauge measurement access is restricted or delayed, or where gauge deployment is hazardous. Ongoing surface acquisition checks and feedback to CNES focusses on the success or failure of the on-board DEM’s on a case-by-case basis. Multiple projects are also underway to improve the surface elevations measurements and the along track resolution (minimum water body width) via exploration of the high resolution (Doppler) Range estimates, the FF-SAR technique, and the high- resolution radiometer based wet tropospheric correction. And while Level3+4 surface water products are being directed by end user requirements, the overriding NASA objectives are the formation of high quality Earth Data Records with high accuracy and uniformity across multiple decades.

Lakes↗
NASA NTRS2009

Satellite Proving Ground for the GOES-R Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM)

The key mission of the Satellite Proving Ground is to demonstrate new satellite observing data, products and capabilities in the operational environment to be ready on Day 1 to use the GOES-R suite of measurements. Algorithms, tools, and techniques must be tested, validated, and assessed by end users for their utility before they are finalized and incorporated into forecast operations. The GOES-R Proving Ground for the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) focuses on evaluating how the infusion of the new technology, algorithms, decision aids, or tailored products integrate with other available tools (weather radar and ground strike networks; nowcasting systems, mesoscale analysis, and numerical weather prediction models) in the hands of the forecaster responsible for issuing forecasts and warning products. Additionally, the testing concept fosters operation and development staff interactions which will improve training materials and support documentation development. Real-time proxy total lightning data from regional VHF lightning mapping arrays (LMA) in Northern Alabama, Central Oklahoma, Cape Canaveral Florida, and the Washington, DC Greater Metropolitan Area are the cornerstone for the GLM Proving Ground. The proxy data will simulate the 8 km Event, Group and Flash data that will be generated by GLM. Tailored products such as total flash density at 1-2 minute intervals will be provided for display in AWIPS-2 to select NWS forecast offices and national centers such as the Storm Prediction Center. Additional temporal / spatial combinations are being investigated in coordination with operational needs and case-study proxy data and prototype visualizations may also be generated from the NASA heritage Lightning Imaging Sensor and Optical Transient Detector data. End users will provide feedback on the utility of products in their operational environment, identify use cases and spatial/temporal scales of interest, and provide feedback to the developers for adjusted or new products.

Goodman, Steven J.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Beyond the Hype: An Evaluation of Commercially Available Machine-Learning-Based Malware Detectors

There is a lack of scientific testing of commercially available malware detectors, especially those that boast accurate classification of never-before-seen (i.e., zero-day) files using machine learning (ML). Consequently, efficacy of malware detectors is opaque, inhibiting end users from making informed decisions and researchers from targeting gaps in current detectors. In this paper, we present a scientific evaluation of four prominent commercial malware detection tools to assist an organization with two primary questions: To what extent do ML-based tools accurately classify previously and never-before-seen files? Is purchasing a network-level malware detector worth the cost? To investigate, we tested each tool against 3,536 total files (2,554 or 72% malicious, 982 or 28% benign) of a variety of file types, including hundreds of malicious zero-days, polyglots, and APT-style files, delivered on multiple protocols. We present statistical results on detection time and accuracy, consider complementary analysis (using multiple tools together), and provide two novel applications of the recent cost-benefit evaluation procedure of Iannacone & Bridges. Although the ML-based tools are more effective at detecting zero-day files and executables, the signature-based tool might still be an overall better option. Both network-based tools provide substantial (simulated) savings when paired with either host tool, yet both show poor detection rates on protocols other than HTTP or SMTP. Our results show that all four tools have near-perfect precision but alarmingly low recall, especially on file types other than executables and office files—37% of malware, including all polyglot files, were undetected. Priorities for researchers and takeaways for end users are given. Code for future use of the cost model is provided.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS2015

Final Report on the Detection of Green Monopropellants

In 2014, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Kennedy Space Center (KSC) funded a project titled "Familiarization and Detection of Green Monopropellants" utilizing Independent Research and Technology Development (IR&TD) and Center Innovation Fund (CIF) funding. The purpose of the project was to evaluate methods of detection for ammonium dinitramide (ADN) and hydroxylammonium nitrate (HAN). An Engineering Services Contract (ESC) task order was created with the scope of evaluation of several methods of detecting ADN- and HAN-based propellants, as well as development of methods for detection. Detection methods include developed methods such as colorimetric indicating absorbent socks, and commercial-off-the- shelf (COTS) units for ammonia detection. An additional goal of the task order was for ESC to become familiar with ADN's and HAN's material properties and material compatibility. Two approaches were initially investigated as possible methods for the detection of HAN (or AFM315E) and ADN (or LMP-103S). These approaches were colorimetric analysis and instrumentation-based COTS vapor sensors utilization. Initial testing showed that the relatively non-existent vapor pressure of the AF-M315E (of which HAN is a major component) propellant would make the use of COTS sensors difficult for real-time area monitoring of HAN; a small response was detected through the use of active COTS sensors, including the RAE Systems MultiRAE Lite and Drager X-act (registered) 5000, but the levels detected were below the threshold limit value for the toxic gas ammonia. Therefore, a detection system ased upon a colorimetric indicator impregnated into an absorbent material was developed. Preliminary analysis (ESC-245-FDG-001) identified a particularly outstanding candidate as a colorimetric indicator for the detection of the presence of AF-M315E in the form of a Methyl Red (Basic) indicator. Materials impregnated with this indicator exhibit significant color change and the materials are not susceptible to interference from exposure to water or carbon dioxide. The completed detection system for HAN/AF-M315E consists of absorbent socks packed with Fisher Universal Spill Absorbent capable of absorbing and containing any propellant spills that they come into contact with along with indicating wipes. The absorbent socks are also chemically treated with a Methyl Red (Basic) indicator solution to provide the end user with a visual indication that a leak has occurred and proper protective precautions must be undertaken. An added benefit of this detection system is that the absorbent socks should neutralize/absorb any commodity that it comes into contact with (until saturation is reached). Additional adsorbent socks can be deployed until a color change is not seen, indicating that the HAN/AF-M315E contamination has been contained. The indicating wipes provide the user the opportunity to wipe surfaces to determine if there is any HAN/AF-M315E or HAN/AFM315E residue present. The wipes should allow the detection of fuel levels that may be too small to detect with the absorbent socks. The development of a detection system for the ADN/LMP-103S focused on the use of various COTS sensors used as real-time area monitoring devices and personal dosimeters. These COTS based sensor systems were of several different types, including both actively pumped and diffusion-based passive systems, as well as a "rope"-type chemical sensing cable. The results highlighted some of the major differences between the two monopropellants undergoing evaluation. Unlike HAN, ADN (which is the major constituent of LMP-103S) exhibits a much more volatile nature in comparison to AF-M315E. In fact, testing showed that a large percentage of the fuel was lost during the sampling measurement (greater than 10 percent by mass); although this testing cannot tell if the volatile component is the ADN itself or another component of the monopropellant solution. Not surprisingly, all four of the procured vapor-based COTS sensors showed positive results when exposed to solutions of the LMP-103S (ESC-245-FDG-002). The completed detection system for ADN/LMP-103S consists of a combination of two of the tested COTS sensor systems, the RAE Systems MultiRAE Lite and the BW Technologies GasAlert Extreme. These systems are meant to be used in conjunction with one another, which allows for the end-user to have both real-time area monitoring (MultiRAE Lite) as well as a personal dosimeter device (GasAlert Extreme) which can be worn as additional personal protective equipment. An stainless steel extension wand was fabricated and included in the detection system for the MultiRAE Lite to allow for more remote sensing, and connects via the active pumping inlet of the sensor. As stated, the final results of this testing resulted in the production of two "kits" which can be used for the detection of HAN/AF-M315E and ADN/LMP-103s (ESC-245-FDG-003).

Detection↗
DOE OSTI2018

Grid Interactive Microgrid Controller for Resilient Communities (Final Report)

The objective of this project was to determine microgrid controller requirements using a use-case approach, then develop, configure and validate the performance of an advanced microgrid controller capable of managing from 1 to 10 megawatts (MW) of aggregated generation capacity to meet the performance targets outlined in DOE Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) DE-FOA-0000997 “Microgrid Research, Development, and System Design” and support the expanding deployment of commercial scale microgrid systems. The project aimed to develop and validate a commercially viable and flexible microgrid controller, easily adapted to different end-user community applications and to a range of electric grid characteristics with the primary outcome of the project being a standard operational model that can be deployed at multiple communities, each with unique resources and resiliency requirements. Spirae’s Wave™ microgrid controller was the advanced microgrid controller utilized in this project. The Spirae Wave™ control platform provides a scalable architecture for integrating and managing high levels of renewable and distributed energy resources (DER) at the edge of the grid. The motivation for the project is a result of the increased interest in microgrids resulting from the confluence of a number of important factors 1) Costs of distributed generation of many different types continues to decrease. This includes gas-based generation that has benefited from the lower cost of natural gas as well as renewable generation (solar, wind, hydro), 2) Storage development for many different industries is lowering its cost for the electric power industry. Storage is a key element of a microgrid to provide the flexibility of operation needed, 3) Applications like combined heat and power further improve the economics of local generation and provide the opportunity for local optimization of resources and loads, 4) There continues to be a need for improved resiliency and coordination of local system strategies (e.g. microgrids) with overall grid investments that can result in more optimum overall investment strategies and reduced times to restore power after major events. The increased interest in microgrids as both a system for local energy optimization and for improved resiliency comes with a need for new controller strategies that can help realize these applications. The new controllers should also reflect industry standards and provide a platform for continued innovation. Additionally, the controllers should be flexible to adapt to a wide variety of end-user community applications and to a wide range of electric grid characteristics. The controller should be equipped with standard functions and interfaces that can expand community opportunities for microgrids.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2013

U.S. Department of Energy Pacific Region Clean Energy Application Center (PCEAC)

The U.S. Department of Energy Pacific Region Clean Energy Application Center (PCEAC) was formed in 2009 by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the California Energy Commission to provide education, outreach, and technical support to promote clean energy -- combined heat and power (CHP), district energy, and waste energy recovery (WHP) -- development in the Pacific Region. The region includes California, Nevada, Hawaii, and the Pacific territories. The PCEAC was operated as one of nine regional clean energy application centers, originally established in 2003/2004 as Regional Application Centers for combined heat and power (CHP). Under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, these centers received an expanded charter to also promote district energy and waste energy recovery, where economically and environmentally advantageous. The centers are working in a coordinated fashion to provide objective information on clean energy system technical and economic performance, direct technical assistance for clean energy projects and additional outreach activities to end users, policy, utility, and industry stakeholders. A key goal of the CEACs is to assist the U.S. in achieving the DOE goal to ramp up the implementation of CHP to account for 20% of U.S. generating capacity by 2030, which is estimated at a requirement for an additional 241 GW of installed clean technologies. Additional goals include meeting the Obama Administration goal of 40 GW of new CHP by 2020, key statewide goals such as renewable portfolio standards (RPS) in each state, California’s greenhouse gas emission reduction goals under AB32, and Governor Brown’s “Clean Energy Jobs Plan” goal of 6.5 GW of additional CHP over the next twenty years. The primary partners in the PCEAC are the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at UC Berkeley, the Advanced Power and Energy Program (APEP) at UC Irvine, and the Industrial Assessment Centers (IAC) at San Diego State University and San Francisco State University. The center also worked with a wide range of affiliated groups and industry, government, NGO, and academic stakeholders to conduct a series of CHP education and outreach, project technical support, and related activities for the Pacific region. Key PCEAC tasks have included: - Preparing, organizing and conducting educational seminars on various aspects of CHP - Conducting state baseline assessments for CHP - Working with state energy offices to prepare state CHP action plans - Providing technical support services including CHP/district energy project feasibility screenings - Working with state agencies on CHP policy development - Developing additional CHP educational materials The primary specific services that PCEAC has offered include: - A CHP “information clearinghouse “ website: http://www.pacificcleanenergy.org - Site evaluations and potential projects screenings - Assessment of CHP status, potential, and key issues for each state - Information and training workshops - Policy and regulatory guidance documents and other interactions These services were generally offered at no cost to client groups based on the DOE funding and additional activities supported by the California Energy Commission, except for the in-kind staff resources needed to provide input data and support to PCEAC assessments at host sites. Through these efforts, the PCEAC reached thousands of end-users and directly worked with several dozen organizations and potential CHP “host sites” from 2009-2013. The major activities and outcomes of PCEAC project work are described.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Design of a graphical user interface for few-shot machine learning classification of electron microscopy data

The recent growth in data generation by modern electron microscopes requires rapid, scalable, and flexible approaches to image segmentation and analysis. Few-shot machine learning, which can richly classify images from a handful of user-provided examples, is a promising route to high-throughput analysis. However, current command-line implementations of such approaches can be slow and unintuitive to use, lacking the real-time feedback necessary to perform effective classification. Here we report on the development of a Python-based graphical user interface that enables end users to easily conduct and visualize the output of few-shot learning models. This interface is portable and can be hosted locally or on the web, providing the opportunity to reproducibly conduct, share, and crowd-source few-shot analyses.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS1996

SPACEWAY(TM) Providing Afordable and Versatile Telecommunication Solutions

This paper presents a summary description of SPACEWAY(TM), a network of Ka band geostationary satellites being developed by Hughes Communications, Inc. to provide worldwide interactive telecommunications services to small, low cost user terminals. By the end of this decade SPACEWAY(TM), using relatively few satellites and tightly focused spot beams, will provide affordable interactive 'bandwidth on demand' communication services on a global basis to consumer and commercial end users. This paper describes the system concept, details the space and ground segment characteristics, and discusses communication links.

Fitzpatrick, Edward James↗
NASA NTRS2019

Impact of the International Space Station Research Results

The International Space Station (ISS) facilitates research that benefits human lives on Earth and serves as the primary testing ground for technology development to sustain life in the extreme environment of space. To date, investigators have published a wide range of ISS science results, from improved theories about the creation of stars to the outcome of data mining “omics” repositories of previously completed ISS investigations. Because of the unique microgravity environment of the ISS laboratory and the multidisciplinary and international nature of the research, analyzing ISS scientific impacts is an exceptional challenge. As a result, the ISS Program Science Forum (PSF), made up of senior science representatives across the ISS international partnership, uses various methods to describe the impacts of ISS research activities. For the most part, past papers written by PSF members to assess the overall ISS research impact have focused on exhibiting ISS research impact by quantifying ISS research output or its perceived benefits for humanity. This paper proposes a new assessment of ISS impact from the perspective of the end users’ needs. To that end, the authors use visualizations and metrics of scientific publication data to show the ISS research influence on traditional scientific fields, its global reach and the benefits to people across the globe.

Diallo, Ousmane N.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Reusability First: Toward FAIR Workflows

The FAIR principles of open science (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) have had transformative effects on modern large-scale computational science. In particular, they have encouraged more open access to and use of data, an important consideration as collaboration among teams of researchers accelerates and the use of workflows by those teams to solve problems increases. How best to apply the FAIR principles to workflows themselves, and software more generally, is not yet well understood. We argue that the software engineering concept of technical debt management provides a useful guide for application of those principles to workflows, and in particular that it implies reusability should be considered as ‘first among equals’. Moreover, our approach recognizes a continuum of reusability where we can make explicit and selectable the tradeoffs required in workflows for both their users and developers.To this end, we propose a new abstraction approach for reusable workflows, with demonstrations for both synthetic workloads and real-world computational biology workflows. Through application of novel systems and tools that are based on this abstraction, these experimental workflows are refactored to rightsize the granularity of workflow components to efficiently fill the gap between end-user simplicity and general customizability. Our work makes it easier to selectively reason about and automate the connections between trade-offs across user and developer concerns when exposing degrees of freedom for reuse. Additionally, by exposing fine-grained reusability abstractions we enable performance optimizations, as we demonstrate on both institutional-scale and leadership-class HPC resources.

Wolf, Matthew↗
DOE OSTI2021

HydrogenAR: Interactive Data-Driven Presentation of Dispenser Reliability: Preprint

When delivering presentations to a co-located audience, we typically use slides with text and 2D graphics to complement the spoken narrative. Though presentations have largely been explored on 2D media, augmented reality (AR) allows presentation designers to add data and augmentations to existing physical infrastructure on display. This could provide a more engaging experience to the audience and support comprehension. With HydrogenAR, we present a novel application that leverages the benefits of data-driven storytelling with those of AR to explain the unique challenges of hydrogen dis- penser reliability. Utilizing physical props, situated data, and virtual augmentations and animations, HydrogenAR serves as a unique presentation tool, particularly critical for stakeholders, tour groups, and VIPs. HydrogenAR is a product of multiple collaborative de- sign iterations with a local Hydrogen Fuel research team and is evaluated through interviews with team members and a user study with end-users to evaluate the usability and quality of the interactive AR experience. Through this work, we provide design considera- tions for AR data-driven presentations and discuss how AR could be used for innovative content delivery beyond traditional slide-based presentations.

augmented reality↗
NASA NTRS1986

DIOGENES: Expert system for extraction of data system requirements

AA The initial operations concept expresses information about system objectives, and defines the system users, system interfaces, and operational performance constraints. We have developed a prototype expert system which has established the feasibility of automating a scenario-driven methodology for deriving top-level specifications and preliminary designs for user data systems. This scenario-driven methodology uses an initial design, an initial operations concept, and user scenarios as the starting point for system definition. The top-level initial design is a functional description of the system in the form of an annotated data flow diagram. The initial operations concept expresses informationabout system objectives, and defines the system users, system interfaces, and operational performance constraints. The user scenarios are detailed time-lined descriptions of user activities, developed by prospective end users. These scenarios, along with the initial design and operations concept, are analyzed and iterated by the expert system to form a consistent set. The resulting User Scenario-Operation Set plays a key role in the development of requirements and system tests.

Hobbs, Robert W.↗