CADENS (The Centrality of Advanced Digitally ENabled Science) is a National Science Foundation-supported project to increase digital literacy and inform the general public about computational and data-enabled discovery. It is led by Donna Cox, director of the Advanced Visualization Laboratory at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, which has created data-driven visualizations seen by millions of people in productions for planetariums, museums, and science television programs. Other project collaborators are Thomas Lucas, producer/director of more than 30 major science documentary films, and the Blue Waters and Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) projects.

CADENS provides a unique opportunity for researchers employing advanced digital methods to integrate their research findings into a story of interest to the public. Input from writers, museum distributors, educators, and other stakeholders help determine subject matter. CADENS has already completed one of twelve documentaries: Solar Superstorms narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch.

FAQ ON BACK

BROADEN THE IMPACT OF YOUR RESEARCH Does your research generate, analyze, and/or visualize data using advanced digital resources? Visualizations of your work could reach millions of people, amplifying its greater societal impacts! CADENS is looking for scientific data to visualize or existing data visualizations to weave into larger documentary narratives in a series of fulldome digital films and TV programs aimed at broad public audiences.

Call for Participation Due 11.30.15

Questions? Contact cadens@ncsa.illinois.eduCFP Submission Form: http: //go.illinois.edu/cadens

The CADENS team is in the process of producing and distributing 11 more documentaries in two formats:

ULTRA-HIGH-RESOLUTION DIGITAL DOME FILMS that will premiere at giant screen fulldome theaters in museums, planetariums, and science centers and will be scaled for global distribution to smaller theaters and academic institutions;

HIGH-DEFINITION DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMS to be distributed to popular domestic and international television outlets including Hulu, Amazon, PBS, and NSF online television.

The process for selecting scientific data and visualizations to be included in CADENS projects is unlike typical proposal review procedures. This selection process involves visualization experts, a science advisory committee, and other stakeholders in an ongoing process to consider a variety of science stories. Examples of the type of science that will be considered for the above CADENS documentaries include, but are not limited to:

n Computational biophysics, medical and disease modelingn Computational astrophysics, e.g. protoplanetary disksn Water/energy sustainability using observational data

or computational modelsn Digital social science, census analysis or

computational economic modelingn Computational geoscience including oceanography,

hurricanes and climate change

For more information about Solar Superstorms visit http://go.illinois.edu/solar_superstorms

WILL I RETAIN COPYRIGHT OF MY DATA OR VISUALIZATIONS?

You will continue to fully own copyright to your data and/or your visualizations; however, you will be asked to sign a permission form to include your data/visualizations in the educational science programs and to post online. NSF hopes to broadly circulate work from the CADENS project, including making it available to educators. Your work will be credited appropriately.

WHAT IF I DON’T HAVE ANY DATA?

CADENS is primarily looking for research that depends upon advanced cyber-infrastructure, including computational science, data-enabled research from numerical archives, and digitally-enabled research such as data from telescopes. If you don’t have numerical data but have a research topic of interest to the public, CADENS will consider its relationship within a larger story context. Please indicate in your submission if you don’t have data.

WHO ARE KEY MEMBERS OF CADENS PROJECT TEAM?

The CADENS grant Principal Investigator is Donna Cox, director of the Advanced Visualization Laboratory (AVL) at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and professor in the School of Art and Design, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The co-investigators are Thomas Lucas, producer/director of more than 30 major science documentary films; Bill Kramer, leader of the Blue Waters NSF project; John Towns, leader of the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) NSF project; and Robert Patterson, Advanced Visualization Lab, NCSA. Spitz Creative Media will be a key contributor and distributor. A distinguished Science Advisory Committee composed of individuals across disciplines and professional societies will advise the project. An independent STEM team will externally evaluate and report on the project.

WHAT IS THE SUBMISSION PROCESS?

After completing a short initial web form describing your work at go.illinois.edu/cadens, you will be contacted by email to set up a phone call with the CADENS project team, to further discuss your data and/or visualizations. The process will be iterative and we expect final decisions will be made over the next year.

WHAT ABOUT PRIVACY OF INFORMATION THAT I SUBMIT?

The submissions will be internally reviewed and not shared with anyone except an internal committee. Nothing will be published or made public without your permission.

HOW WILL THE SUBMISSIONS BE SELECTED?

CADENS selection process is unlike typical proposal reviews. CADENS stakeholders include educators, museum distributors, writers, audience focus groups, and a distinguished Science Advisory Committee (SAC) who help determine topics of interest. The solicitation and selection process will continue over the life of the project. Final selections will be based upon several criteria that help identify projects that convey forefront research as well as fit into an overall scientific narrative that will help educate the public. Usually successful narratives include science from multiple research teams. A team of experts will assess visualization feasibility of the data submitted. A distinguished Science Advisory Committee will also make recommendations for science topics based upon feasibility. This project is primarily looking for three-dimensional spatial computational or digitally enabled science. CADENS asks the following questions:

n How do the computation, data analysis, or advanced digital technologies help researchers find the answer to the research questions?

n When developed as part of a larger story, will the research be insightful to the broader public?

n Does the work represent an advancement of the field?

n Are there limitations to the scientific data or visualizations (size, frequency, etc)?

n Is the data spatial or relational, and can it be made visually compelling?

n Are the researchers willing to collaborate with the project team?

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?n Participation in this project increases the broad impact of

research and this broad impact can be reported to the National Science Foundation in reports and proposals.

n Project participants get access to professionals and experts to visualize their research data.

n Project visualizations will be professionally packaged with scripts, interviews, music, and narration, and will be widely distributed by professionals with a successful record of science and public outreach.

n External evaluation of these visualizations and programs will produce “lessons learned” for future research proposals. Project participants will build relationships with outreach professionals and increase potential for future outreach projects.

WHAT WILL BE REQUIRED FROM ME?

First you will need to fill out a form. We may require a follow up telephone conversation about your data or visualizations. If your work is selected to be part of a program, we will ask that your data be transferred to NCSA for visualizations, or that you give us access to your visualizations for inclusion. You will be asked to sign a permission form so that your data/visualizations may be used for project purposes.

More FAQs: http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/enabling/vis/cadens/

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS