FIU Cyberinfrastructure Research Workshop

Cyberinfrastructure Methods and Security in Public Policy and Administration

FIU will be hosting a two-part research workshop, including one session during ASPA's 2025 Annual Conference, bringing together public policy and administration students and scholars to explore cyberinfrastructure methods and cybersecurity questions. Cyberinfrastructure refers to the digital infrastructure based upon distributed computer, information and communication technology. High performance computing (HPC) has enabled new algorithms based on AI techniques (including machine learning methods) that can analyze big administrative data to answer questions that had previously been unapproachable. At the same time, security concerns have escalated across public agencies, especially in the post-COVID era. Workshop planners invite public policy and administration researchers who are broadly interested in using data science and machine learning methods; employing HPCs to manipulate large data sets (especially administrative); using natural language processing (NLP) methods; and examining cybersecurity topics.

This workshop is open to all public policy and administration scholars; sponsorships are available for scholars who are affiliated with American institutions (educational, research, nonprofit or government organizations). We will select applications that have a close relationship with the above four themes. Scholars should be willing to attend events associated with the workshop. Those affiliated with non-American entities are welcome to participate, but will not be eligible for funding support.

The workshop will include two events:

(i) Virtual Learning Workshop (January 31, by Zoom, 10.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. EST): Participants will present research questions and methods, along with any preliminary analyses. We will discuss the papers in peer groups, facilitated by instructors.

(ii) ASPA 2025 Conference Workshop (March 30, Washington, DC): Participants will present their final papers. We plan to have a special issue in Public Administration Quarterly related to these papers, but participants are free to submit to any journal in the field. Acknowledgement of funding is expected with the journal papers.

Application Process: Please submit the Qualtrics application available here. Applications received by October 1, 2024 will receive priority consideration. We will announce selected applicants by October 31, 2024. The FIU faculty in charge are Sukumar Ganapati, Shaoming Cheng and Howard Frank.

The workshop is organized as a part of the National Science Foundation sponsored “Advanced Cyber Infrastructure Training in Policy Informatics” (Award #1924154). Consistent with the project, the research workshop’s objective is to increase public administration and policy scholars’ capacity with cyberinfrastructure skills. Hence, the project will cover the ASPA 2025 Conference registration costs and include a $300 gift card payment for participation in the workshop and conference panel. If there are multiple authors, funding will be given to one presenting co-author. Contact Sukumar Ganapati for any questions.