Berkeley, UC San Diego, and the University of Washington have been awarded a five-year, $5 million grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop CloudBank, a suite of managed services to remove barriers to public cloud access for data science and computer science research and education.
The initiative will help meet growing demand for cloud resources in academic settings by addressing cost and technical issues that otherwise can hinder broad access.
"We are excited to be a partner in this initiative that democratizes cloud technology for research and education,” said David Culler, CloudBank co-PI and Friesen Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at Berkeley. “It will enable a robust and scalable infrastructure across a diverse range of institutions and settings."
Berkeley’s data science education curriculum pioneered the use of the cloud at scale, providing thousands of students easy access to computational resources and serving as a model for universities across the world. Anthony Suen, Division of Data Science and Information Director of Programs, said that this initiative will make it possible for more colleges and universities to establish similar programs.
"Many institutions around the country have been looking to adopt Berkeley's data science education infrastructure, but did not have access to cloud credits to implement it," he said. "CloudBank will solve that gap in the ecosystem."