Overview

Reengineering for Increased Relevancy and Outcomes

Last year, the MU-SPIN project implemented a new concept for transferring state-of-the-art networking technology to institutions predominantly attended by traditionally underrepresented racial and/or ethnic minorities in mathematics, science, engineering, and technology (MSET). The intent of the Network Resources and Training Site (NRTS) concept was to build upon the training accomplishments of the prior years and improve research infrastructure, thereby increasing opportunities to participate in and benefit from NASA and other Federal funding programs. The first year for the NRTS concept was a complete success: Approximately 4,000 people attended NRTS workshops in FY96 from 87 different institutions. Approximately 63 new computer labs were created and 89 labs were enhanced with equipment and/or network connectivity. NASA's Office of Equal Opportunity Program's (OEOP) Minority University Research and Education Program (MUREP) in conjunction with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Minority University-SPace Interdisciplinary Network (MU-SPIN) Project are proud to contribute to Federal mandates for minority institutions (MIs) by providing minority-focused MSET technological and educational outreach projects.

NRTSs are institutions that, by Cooperative Agreement design, had not historically received major amounts of funding from NASA, but could convince merit reviewers that they could implement the NRTS vision of the MU-SPIN project. For some of these schools, MSET departments were either not connected to the Internet or just recently began their mal-funded quest for leveraging the resources of campus networks and the National Information Infrastructure (NII). Additionally, most of the NRTS's partnering institutions, had no campus networks or no Internet connectivity, and subsequently, many of the technology training and education curricula workshops were standing-room-only. The aforementioned metrics communicate the current state of infrstucture and training needs in the minority education community. However, infrastucture and training investments do not guarantee strengthening of MSET education and research. It can be very difficult for an institution to change the way it conducts education and research without strong executive leadership, implementing an agreed upon mission, vision and goals, working closely with a mentor with education and research curricula and training. Year-end project evaluation communicated that investments in infrastructure and training must be focused toward education and research disciplines relevant to NASA in the strategic planning process, thereby addressing MU-SPIN/MUREP outcome goals for use of the Internet as an integral part of minority universities' interdisciplinary research and education programs.

While MU-SPIN continues to support the Project's original vision, mission, and goals established six years ago, which contributed to the creation of the NRTSs, the Project recognizes a need to once again, reengineer itself. The Project must create a new framework that will provide increased relevancy of Project funding towards a redefined NASA. Additionally, the Project will implement a management planning process which will define the activities that will produce outcomes aligned with NASA mssion, vision and goals for MIs.

This document serves the purpose of defining a strategic plan for aligning MU-SPIN outcomes with MUREP, NASA, and NASA Enterprise Strategic Plan goals, by creating systemic and sustainable change through investments in infrastructure and training, and leveraging partnerships and programs that enhance research and educational outcomes in NASA-related fields. The plan is to focus the capabilities and goals of MU-SPIN and the NRTSs to the relevant goals of NASA, industry partners, other Federal agencies, state government organizations and universities. New to the project's strategic plan aimed at addressing these focus areas are:

• Creation of "Expert Institutes" within the NRTSs, which will highlight NRTS/Institutional interdisciplinary expertise for competitiveness and partnering;
  
  
• Creation of multidisciplinary workshops to promote distance learning for research, education, and commercialization, and create new opportunities through digital collaboration;
  
  
• Research on Change Management Intervention in MU-SPIN institutions, which will help identify obstacles to obtaining project goals by defining critical activities, outcomes and evaluation;
  
  
• Facilitation of technology transfer and commercialization to help sustain efforts beyond Federal funding expirations and contribute to NRTS economic growth;
  
  
• Promotion of NASA faculty/student summer research aimed at providing direct interaction with NASA scientists and creating an avenue for tracking student participation and career advancements.
  
  

The entire MU-SPIN community should become familiar with this plan to create ways to participate and to enhance its goals and objectives. The Project also welcomes participation outside the MU-SPIN community because our success depends on participation from other entities.

The ability of the MU-SPIN project to bring in the growing numbers of truly deserving institutions and participants largely depends on our ability to adapt to the new demands NASA and our environment presents us. Our only boundaries are those we create.

James L. Harrington, Jr.
MU-SPIN Project Manager

Mission Statement

To transfer advanced computer networking technologies to institutions predominantly attended by racial or ethnic minorities at the graduate, undergraduate, and precollege levels who traditionally have been underrepresented in mathematics, science, engineering and technology (MSET) areas related to NASA's mission.

• Strengthen the science and engineering capabilities of MU-SPIN institutions in research and education via computer networks;
  
  
• Involve and prepare minority institutions and principal investigators to successfully participate in competitive research and education processes via computer networks; and
  
  
• Develop training and education mechanisms to support, sustain and evolve the institutional network infrastructure, thereby generating a better prepared pool of candidates to contribute to NASA's workforce diversity efforts.
  
  

Strategies and Goals Overview

This strategic plan defines the direction in which the MU-SPIN Project will move (the strategies) and the actions required to proceed in that direction (the goals). A broad perspective of these strategies and goals follows:

• Identify strategies to make the project more relevant and inclusive to new opportunities. Project relevancy will generate acclaim and new particpants representing new opportunites will be leveraged.
  
  
• Build partnerships with other initiatives aimed at improving the statistics for ethnic and racial groups underrepresented in MSET. Many of our institutions are receiving multiple significant multidisciplinary awards and the institutions are not optimally leveraging financial resources. All NASA MSET funding received by a MU-SPIN funded institution will be targeted for integration into the NRTS activities and resources.
  
  
• Research will be conducted to improve management of these complex collaborations. NASA Strategic Management guidlines will be implemented and all institutions, PIs and Co-PIs will be a part of the team.
  
  
• A need to respond to multi-agency concerns for payoff of investments is identified. Partnerships which institute and leverage goals of increasing retention, graduation, and post graduation of MSET degrees will be reinforced and expanded. Research will be conducted to ensure that all non-traditional impacts are highlighted and additionally considered as metrics for success. All successes will be published.
  
  
• Reduced dependence on Federal funding is identified. Activities that nurture commercialization will be reinforced and given high priority. For MU-SPIN institutions to be fully competitive with majority institutions, we must create an income stream that significantly enhances the resources and attractiveness of these institutions as magnet institutions of education, research and technology innovation.
  
  
• Emphasis on publishing and marketing will be intensified. World Wide Web pages depicting activities and research will be created and kept current. NASA Center marketing will be hightened and local and national press will be appropriately contacted for coverage of events.
  
  
• The MU-SPIN Project Office's key role will be of facilitator and think-tank. It will consist of technical, educational, and marketing specialists capable of responding to the needs of the project's customers. PI collaboration will be strengthened to provide more timely feedback for improvements in the project.
  
  
• NASA summer education programs will receive a new emphasis. All NRTS sites will contribute to an education fund which will be used to send two students to the center program of their choice or to a new MU-SPIN sponsored program at GSFC. All appropriately identified programs will be aggressively pursued by our collaborating institutions and our students' growth will be tracked.
  
  

NRTS/Expert Institutes

The NRTS/"Expert Institutes" creates immediate identification of research, education, technology transfer, and commercialization opportunities that match the expertise of NRTS PIs and their institutions. This concept helps define roles for the NRTSs that emphasizes the technical competence in which the NRTS is in a position of preeminence. Nurturing the NRTS's technical preeminence positions the NRTSs and their collaborating institutions to more effectively use the accessible resources for competing more effectively for funding opportunities; and, through commercial technology, enhance the economic growth of their communities.

Strategy

MU-SPIN cooperatively with the NRTS PIs will choose technology or science focus areas for the NRTS which will best represent the capabilities of the NRTS and the institution for achieving the goals of the "Expert Institute" concept.

Goals

• Create synergism of broad purposes, technology requirements, skills, and facilities by streamlining the training and education production responsibilities of the NRTSs. This will free the NRTSs from reproducing applications and researching opportunities, thereby septupling the available resources for the entire MU-SPIN community.
  
  
• Create a cross-collaboration distance learning requirement for upgrading the wide area network bandwidth and procuring distance learning classroom infrastructure thereby exploiting a Federal funding focus of using the NII as a tool for education.
  
  
• Match "Expert Institute" capabilities to the NASA Enterprises component in science, education, research, technology transfer and commercialization wherever possible.
  
  
• Match "Expert Institute" capabilities with research, education, technology transfer and commercialization efforts of faculty and students from other institutions.
  
  
• Match "Expert Institute" capabilities with other Federal, state, and privately funded laboratories' education, research, technology transfer, and commercialization components.
  
  

Multidisciplinary Workshops

Perspective

Historically, national laboratories and universities have used networking to facilitate the geographical dispersion of collaborative science. Collaboration strategies which will be dependent on high-performance networking will be nurtured. Delegating and leveraging distant expertise eliminates redundancy and reduces costs.The ability to instantly tap distant expertise without expensing travel will be key in delivering more benefits for less money.

Strategy

The reengineering of the MU-SPIN project will be anchored by multidisciplinary workshops delivered over a distance learning network. It will be designed to create and foster a "virtual project" whereby the distance learning network uses the Internet to connect all the NRTSs and their collaborating institutions with the MU-SPIN Project and the rest of the country.

Goals

• Provide a means for obtaining multidisciplinary NRTS workshop components from a variety of collaborating universities, Federal laboratories and industry sites.
  
  
• Provide a means for nurturing "virtual universities" where multiple universities may contribute to training workshops and offer curriculum and programs otherwise unobtainable to their local faculty and students. This is critical for universities in rural areas that cater to the local community but are not accredited or do not have qualified staff for certain kinds of education.
  
  
• Exploit the goals of the Federal administration's funding of NII applications for education and research, especially those projects which include underrepresented populations in MSET.
  
  
• Provide the impetus for creating collaborations and leveraging funding with other projects and institutions aimed at improving racial and ethnic participation in MSET.
  
  
• Provide the impetus for the MU-SPIN community to intimately participate in national and international high-performance networking development and standards creation.
  
  

Change Management

Perspective

With over eighty schools, colleges, and universities at the seven NRTSs, the task of implementing the requisite technology transfer and technology management oversight becomes a matter for effective project management and team cohesiveness. Although the Project is well intentioned, that is not enough to help MU-SPIN institutions with sociotechnical change. Direct intervention from the Project Office is needed to assist the institutions in supporting change in the affected MSET departments and partnering institutions.

Strategy

MU-SPIN will fund a specialist in Change Management with the appropriate technical background to help MU-SPIN and assist our partners with difficult cultural and process problems. The Project will implement strategic project plans for all NRTSs as a basis for managing NRTS affairs effectively and efficiently. These plans will be consistent with the NASA Strategic Management model. Specifically, this model delineates the processes, schedules, and management reponsibilities for the following:

• Integrating Strategic Planning with the budget process;
  
  
• Developing detailed Implementation Plans and strategies;
  
  
• Managing the execution of strategies through programs and processes; and
  
  
• Evaluating performance and assessing and reporting results.
  
  

Goals

• Revolutionize the way the MU-SPIN Project Office functions to more effectively support the growing number of MU-SPIN institutions;
  
  
• Assist the NRTS to more effectively implement the goals of the MU-SPIN Cooperative Agreement Notice and MUREP;
  
  
• Assist MU-SPIN, NASA, other Federal agencies, state government organizations and industry in better understanding the comparison of institutions as Learning Organizations with more accurate comparative metrics;
  
  

Technology Transfer and Commercialization

Perspective

National and NASA policy changes elevate the commercial technology mission to a fundamental NASA mission as important as any in the agency. In order to ensure national economic security impacts of NASA programs, NASA will pursue a commercial technology mission concurrent to its aerospace mission. The MU-SPIN technology transfer and commercialization mission will ensure that, where applicable, the program be carried out in a way that proactively involves the private sector from the onset, through a new way of doing business, to ensure that the technology developed will have maximum potential for sustaining itself.

Additionally, the MU-SPIN Project firmly believes that in order for MU-SPIN schools to become truly competitive in the mainstream with non-reliance on shrinking racial or ethnic based funding, technology transfer and commercialization must be viewed as a primary mission for the Project, if not the driving force. Transferring technology with commercial potential will drive 21st century requirements for education, research, collaboration, and infrastructure.

Strategy

The MU-SPIN Project will lead the community in the following areas:

• Capabilities Inventory - MU-SPIN will inventory and highlight technology capabilities within the MU-SPIN community;
  
  
• Technology Investment - MU-SPIN will identify opportunities within NASA (10 to 20 percent of NASA's budget is devoted to commercialization) and other agencies for technology transfer and commercialization matches with our community capabilities;
  
  
• Partnerships - A major new emphasis will be placed on the formation of partnerships between NASA, industry, other government agencies and acedemia;
  
  
• Minority, Small and Disadvantaged Business/Equal Opportunity - MU-SPIN will partner with existing businesses in the MU-SPIN communities and will ultimately create new businesses with the technology transfer and commercialization mission;
  
  
• Training and Education - MU-SPIN will provide necessary technology transfer and commercialization training to the communities;
  
  

Goals

• Ensure that technology investment is sustained after NASA funding ends;
  
  
• Increase the institution's capabilities to perform state-of-the-art research and developement to increase the institution's competitiveness; and
  
  
• Improve the fiscal requirements of the institutions to compete effectively;
  
  

Summer Student Programs

Perspective

NASA significanty emphasizes education. NASA's vision is simple: support of education shall enhance the Nation's level of scientific literacy and technological competence by sharing the knowledge and inspiration of space research and exploration with the public, educators, and students. NASA uses a plethora of programs to achieve this vision, of which are available during the summer.

Strategy

The MU-SPIN Project Office cooperatively with the NRTSs will fund a summer program aimed at paricipation from MU-SPIN schools' student bodies to participate in the vast opportunities for hands-on/minds-on learning for precollege, undergraduate, and graduate students in MSET. Additionally, the MU-SPIN Project Office will dissect the education plans of all the NASA enterprises and ensure that any student or teacher in our community who has the ambition to attend any of these programs will have significant assistance in applying for participation.

Goals

• Ensure the inclusion of traditionally underrepresented racial or ethnic minorities in MSET in NASA's summer programs;
  
  
• Inspire career interests and enhance the development of future scientists and engineers through collaborative research relationships between NASA and MU-SPIN institutions;
  
  
• Enhance teacher training and education by facilitating access to NASA research and technology activities and scientific results;
  
  
• Amplify the impact of MU-SPIN partnerships and collaborations with NASA center programs and scientists;
  
  

MU-SPIN Project Office

The MU-SPIN project has a vision that aligns it with the goals of MURED MSET outcome objectives and the NASA Agenda for Change. The Project feels that this philosophy better prepares our constituency with the tools to take off and run independently. The Project's ability to lead with this latest revolution requires the Project office to undergo some organizational changes to become a more effective and efficient resource for our institutions and communities while positioning them for the demands of competing in the R&D environment of the 21st century. To do this, the Project will do the following:

The Project will focus towards highlighting the "Expert Institute" concept and leveraging unrealized outcomes.

The Project will create a research and education coordinator position that will be responsible for leading a team of individuals identifying the interests and strengths of the NRTS and communities and present those strengths through workshops. These workshops will nurture these interests and capabilities for implementing NASA science into MSET curriculum and research objectives. Additionally, this activity will identify collaboration, technology transfer and commercialization opportunities to the outside world.

The Project will agressively pursue distance learning concepts for implementing virtual university systems and a virtual MURED MSET advancement network.

Our network engineers will inventory all videoconference capabilities of our institutions and implement infrastructure where needed. This will allow the project to share education and research advancements nationwide while providing opporunities for obtaining specialized training for collaborating with Federal laboratories and industry. The Project will use existing distance learning technology models where applicable. We will also aggressively pursue the usage of this network by all MUREP funded programs nationwide.

The Project will add a Change Management Specialist who has documented skills for assisting our project with effectively managing the enormous change we must undergo to ensure that our objectives are obtained, measured correctly, and properly reported.

The number of simultaneous activities launched to meet our new goals will be enormous. Unless we address the usage of sound strategic planning and project management and reporting, the probability of success is reduced greatly. In addition, this individual will be the leader for helping us break through traditional barriers which have prevented segments of our project from utilizing resources to their fullest.

The Project will add an industry partner with expertise and a proven track record for assisting our institutions with technology transfer and commercialization objectives.

The future of our institutions depend greatly on an ability to expand funding beyond the traditional state and Federal avenues. All of the majority institutions have already implemented or are working vigorously towards implementing technology transfer and commercialization infrastructure. This is a chance for us to be in line with the forefront of university activity. We must provide the fiscal, organizational and technological infrastructure to attract and maintain top quality faculty, students and research which propels a university into greater independence.

The Project will put a new significance on marketing.

The project will staff a multimedia specialist who will concentrate on capturing and presenting all activities on a multitude of platforms such as WWW servers, brochures, posters, newsletters, press releases, etc. We must become more visible with our success to other Federal agencies, state and local agencies and industry. We must show our capabilities as a viable and necessary avenue for partnering.

We will step up our participation in HPCC, and IITA initiatives.

The Earth and Space Data Computing Division of GSFC has within it, an office which specializes in participating in the national High Performance Computing and Communications intiative as well as the national Information Infrastructure and Technology & Applications initiative. These activities include GSFC participation in the Advanced Technology Demonstration Network, the Advanced Telecommunications Satellite, ATM Internetwork, the Asynchrous Trasnfer Mode Forum, etc. These technologies provide the transfer opportunities to the community for understanding, implementing and leveraging the capabilities of Optical Carrier, Synchronous Optical Networking and cell switching based technologies. These technologies form the foundation that 21st century communication will be based on.