Proposal for Sabbatical Leave: FOSS Cyberinfrastructure for Mathematics Research and Undergraduate Mathematics Education
NSF's Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) “supports and coordinates the development, acquisition, and provision of state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure resources, tools and services essential to the advancement and transformation of science and engineering”. In service of this mission, Dr. Clontz serves as co-PI on NSF DUE Award 2011807 [16], responsible for the development of several technologies to support evidence-based pedagogies in undergraduate mathematics education. Likewise, Clontz previously received an internal Faculty Development Council grant to hire a student worker to audit and expand the \(\pi\)-Base [12] database of topological spaces for use in mathematics research.
This proposal requests to leverage the momentum from these projects by allowing Clontz to spend one semester during the 2022-23 academic year collaborating with scholars across the country in the development of advanced free-and-open-source (FOSS) cyberinfrastructure for mathematics research and undergraduate mathematics education. The American Institute of Mathematics [1] will serve as Clontz's host for this sabbatical leave, and his collaborators will include steering committee chairs of two major topology research conferences, as well as a professional software engineer with a background in topology. In addition to software deliverables that will enhance mathematics research and education, this leave will be used to develop proposals for additional external funding from the National Science Foundation, produce traditional academic research in topology to be presented at conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals, and network with statewide magnet STEM high schools to promote the University to high-performing students.