Welcome - Craig Stewart
Speaker: John Towns, NCSA
Title: State of XSEDE
Abstract - XSEDE has just wrapped up its first year of the program with a myriad of activities during that first year. In the presentation we will review the purpose and mission of XSEDE. In the spirit of the conference, "Bridging from the eXtreme to the campus and beyond," we will also review the expanded focus of the program with respect to the broad community it intends to support. Throughout the talk we will highlight some of the significant accomplishments of XSEDE in its inaugural year.
Speaker: Richard Tapia, Rice
Title: Crisis In Higher Education: The Need For New Leadership
Abstract: Extreme growth in the nation’s Hispanic population, primarily Mexican American, is forcing educational challenges at a crisis level for the country. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that this fastest growing segment of the nation’s population continues to be the least educated. His warning is that the rate at which the minority population is growing outpaces the rate at which we are improving our effectiveness in educating this segment of the population. Because the economic health of the country is based in large measure upon technical advances, the country must find a way to incorporate this growing population into the mainstream of scientific and technical endeavors.
The speaker's remarks will focus on the successes and failures of the nation’s tier 1 universities regarding their representation at the undergraduate, graduate, and faculty levels in science, engineering, and mathematics. The speaker will also relate how he became a leader in underrepresentation issues at the campus, state, and national levels, and will discuss challenges he's faced throughout this journey.