Abstract

Team Members: Disaiah Bennett, Tatyana Matthews, Jefferson Ridgeway
Mentor: Jeff Wood

The Center of Excellence in Remote Sensing Education and Research (CERSER) on the campus of Elizabeth City State University is currently partnering with the San Diego Supercomputing Center and the Science Gateways Community Institute (SGCI). One of the five areas of SGCI is the Workforce Development led by Dr. Linda Hayden, the CERSER Principal Investigator. The Workforce Development aims to increase the development pipeline of young professionals and engage the potential of students from underrepresented groups.

As science today grows increasingly computer based, it poses challenges and opportunities for researchers. Scientists and engineers are turning to gateways to allow them to analyze, share, and understand large volumes of data more effectively. The existence of science and engineering gateways and the sophisticated cyberinfrastructure (CI) tools together can significantly improve the productivity of researchers. Most importantly, science gateways can give uniform access to the cyberinfrastructure that enables cutting-edge science.

The goal of the web development team was to increase the interactivity of the SGCI Young Professionals site to attract potential members and disseminate information. This was completed utilizing WordPress Widgets to provide graphical and interactive components. Bootstrap components (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) were also researched for their inclusion into the current WordPress Content Management System (CMS) and the future Liferay CMS.

Keywords: SGCI, Science Gateways Community Institute, Bootstrap, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, WordPress, Liferay, widgets, components