THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLLABORATORY TOOLS TO FACILITATE MULTI-DISCIPLINARY, MULTI-SCALE RESEARCH ENVIRONMENTAL KINETICS RESEARCH

In the attack of environmental science problems with a multi-disciplinary, team-based approach, large amounts of data across a variety of disciplines are both available in the literature and newly generated as research progresses. Data overload and different disciplinary vocabularies (jargon) present difficulties that can slow the progress of research, and often restrict the wide-scale sharing and understanding of results across disciplines. In our cyberinfrastructure development project, we are helping scientists in the environmental community formulate and answer new questions by linking environmental kinetic data and results from a large variety of sources.

We will describe the progress within our NSF-funded cyberinfrastructure project, where we are focusing on software development to collect, analyze, and distribute data to scientists working on environmental chemistry problems. The work requires close collaboration among information science and technology (IST) faculty and environmental scientists, where IST expertise in software development is joined with the chemical information and knowledge necessary to make the content of the database useful. In such work, it is essential that tool development by information scientists be validated and augmented with design feedback from chemists, biochemists, geochemists, environmental and civil engineers, and others involved in the research. Intelligent data management and use will streamline the process of discovery as information is provided in context while maximizing connectivity among methodologies and disciplines. Ultimately, we will implement a system to provide seamless access to multiple databases and digital libraries for the end user.