Report from the TeraGrid Evaluation Study, Part 1: Project Findings

Abstract

TeraGrid integrates multiple high-performance computing resources at distributed provider facilities. In 2006, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a grant to the University of Michigan's School of Information (UM-SI) to conduct an external evaluation of TeraGrid. The primary goals of the evaluation were to provide specific information to TeraGrid managers that will increase the likelihood of TeraGrid success, and to give NSF and policy makers general data that will assist them in making strategic decisions about future directions for cyberinfrastructure. In order to accomplish these objectives, the UM-SI study assessed four aspects of the TeraGrid project: 1) progress in meeting user requirements; 2) impact of TeraGrid on research outcomes; 3) quality and content of TeraGrid education, outreach, and training activities; and 4) satisfaction among TeraGrid partners. We employed a mixed method approach that consisted of a user workshop; participant observation; document analysis; interviews with 86 individuals representing five different categories; a survey of a sample of 595 TeraGrid users; and two surveys to assess TeraGrid tutorials held in 2006 and 2007. Most of the data were collected from June 2006 through May 2007. Findings from the evaluation study are presented in two parts. In this first part, we report results from analyses of all data collected during the investigation. Detailed findings from the user survey are presented in Part 2 of the report.