Katie Antypas

Director, NSF’s Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure

Congratulations on your selection as a 2024 HPCwire Person to Watch. Stepping away from NERSC at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to become the director of the NSF Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, even on a short-term basis, sounds like a daunting and exciting challenge. How did that come about? Tell us what attracted you to the position, how you approach the job, and whether you have a sense of how long you’ll be at this position?

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab is an amazing place, and I have been fortunate to have had great mentors, been able to work on exciting projects, and made strong friendships across the DOE National Labs complex. I am, in fact, still a Berkeley Lab employee, and with the support of Berkeley Lab I am ‘on rotation’ to the National Science Foundation for 3-4 years as the Director of the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC).

The OAC has an incredible portfolio of computing, data, networking, cybersecurity, and software research and investments that span from early exploratory research to large-scale production systems to outreach and engagement activities with new communities. To be able to guide such a wide range of programs and share my expertise was a really exciting prospect. The opportunity to lead the launch and deployment of the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) pilot effort, an urgent and critical initiative for the future of AI innovation, is an opportunity of a lifetime that I simply could not pass up.

NSF is a new organization for me, and I am learning a new process or program each day (or rather each hour). I am grateful to the amazing program officers and staff in OAC and around the Foundation who have been so patient and generous with their time on-boarding me and other rotators.

Given the OAC’s broad responsibilities (hardware, software, training, etc.), what are your near-term priorities? Is there an OAC roadmap or blueprint completed or in the works? What kinds of leading edge technologies is OAC looking to explore and implement?

So many amazing programs were seeded and launched from OAC in the past five years that a critical need now is to continue to integrate them into a really cohesive ecosystem that is accessible and easy for the growing cyberinfrastructure research and education community to navigate. Tied to this is a drive to reach new users and developers of cyberinfrastructure, and both build and support the communities and organizations that are doing the hard work to bring new students, educators, and researchers into the ecosystem.

We are in the midst of technology disruptions and a changing computing landscape across many fronts, including novel hardware and storage architectures, new Software as a Service paradigms, and large-scale experimental science instruments and facilities coming online that require new ways of integrating data pipelines and software, and of course, AI. It will be critical that OAC invests across these areas to support cutting-edge science research and innovation. Finally, our investments in networking and cybersecurity are the connective tissues that will enable a transformative and cohesive ecosystem. (There are a number of blueprints that were recently developed that are published on OAC’s website.)

You’ve been quoted on the importance of the announced National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) pilot program. Could you briefly describe it and talk about what role NSF and OAC will have in NAIRR?

NAIRR is a concept for a national infrastructure that connects U.S.-based researchers and educators to the computational, data, software, model, and user support resources necessary to power U.S. AI innovation and develop a healthy AI ecosystem. The NAIRR pilot, as directed in the Executive Order on the Safe, Secure and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, is a proof-of-concept for the eventual full-scale NAIRR.

The pilot will focus on supporting research and education across broad and diverse communities, while also serving as a vehicle for gaining insights that will refine the design of a full NAIRR. The National Science Foundation, through the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, is leading the launch and deployment of the NAIRR pilot in collaboration with 10 other federal agencies and 25 industry and non-profit partners. The NAIRR pilot launched in January 2024.

Data management has long been a prominent challenge in delivering advanced cyberinfrastructure to widely-distributed scientists; their local organizations have diverse (sometimes limited) resources. How important is the data management piece for OAC, and is there an overarching approach to handling data?

Our focus in OAC goes beyond data management to really thinking about the entire lifecycle of data, how they are acquired, filtered, moved, managed, analyzed, curated, and shared. Our overarching approach is to engage deeply with science communities on their particular needs. While different science communities can, and do, leverage common data lifecycle tools and software, it is critical to partner with the science community to understand requirements to co-design data infrastructure that fits a particular use case.

Our Cyberinfrastructure for Sustained Scientific Innovation (CSSI) program uses this partnership approach and receives co-funding from many other science divisions and directorates across NSF. To reach broad communities, we support training and outreach efforts on software, tools, and practices that have become more rooted in the community. Building and supporting data lifecycle software with modular components enables their reuse by multiple communities.

What inspired you to pursue a career in STEM, and what advice would you give to young people who wish to follow in your footsteps?

I don’t ever remember choosing a STEM path. Rather, my science classes were just the most interesting. (For me, the most daunting course I took in college was Russian Literature. I could not understand how my classmates could consume so many pages so quickly.) While I found Physics really hard, I also found it satisfying and rewarding to understand the physical world.

My advice to young people is to take the hard classes and worry less about your grades. Nobody ever said in retrospect, ‘you know, I really wish I understood less math.’ Take the hard classes. You will have the skills you learn with you for the rest of your life. Also, don’t be afraid to switch fields or directions. I came to Computer Science quite late. I didn’t take a CS course until my senior year in college, but I loved it and adjusted directions.

Finally, I would strongly encourage students and young people just beginning their careers to find support and mentorship through community groups. I have been so impressed with the younger generation’s emphasis on creating welcoming environments for people from all backgrounds. The affinity and interest groups available now at conferences and targeted toward building specific skill sets are resources I know I would have benefited from when I was starting my career.

Outside of the professional sphere, what can you tell us about yourself – unique hobbies, favorite places, etc.? Is there anything about you your colleagues might be surprised to learn?

I enjoy exploring cities by foot and trying out their public transportation systems. I have always been fascinated by large public infrastructure systems, projects, and parks.
I have broken my leg(s) three times, each time skiing. After the last break I thought I had retired, but I’m finding that itch to ski again. I grew up with the motto, “if you are not falling, then you are not learning and need to find more difficult terrain.”

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