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iPg2p Steering Committee Minutes
October 28, 2009; 1 to 2 pm CDT

Present: Tom Brutnell, Steve Welch, Dan Kliebenstein, Ruth Grene, Chris Myers, Karla Gendler, Jeff White, Dan Stanzione, Matt Vaugh, Steve Goff

The meeting was convened at 1pm CDT and there was some general discussion to allow time for late arrivals to dial in.

Item 1: Review Action Items

  • Welch to post updated document
    • In process of refining and will post once returns from Austin late next week

Item 2: Postdoc Update

Welch reported that the StatInf group has had 2 applicants but the group will not be moving forward with either of them.  At Kansas State, there have been 4 applicants but none have moved forward.  However, Welch did say that there was an applicant coming in this afternoon that appeared promising and he would report back after the meeting.  Brutnell has had 5 appliactions with the strongest being a recommendation from another lab.  He would like to talk about moving Lin, on of his postdocs, to the project as there have already been interactions between Lin and Nick Provart regarding NGS viz needs.  Ware has had 2 candidates but there were issues of when the individuals could start (next May).  Grene has conducted 2 interviews but will not be hiring either one of the individuals.  It was suggested that the group readvertise the positions but to rewrite the ads to be more specific to what each WG wants.  Welch has also been contacted by a postdoc headhunter and for $195 can view their database of postdocs.

Item 3: Overarching Use Cases

Discussion was opened on the use cases as presented in the trip report with the understanding that there would be a prioritization of these to identify which to work on.  Brutnell asked about C3-C4 as he didn't see it on the list.  Both the Brachypodium and phenology use cases contain large outreach opportunities.  Welch agreed to find out from Maria (?) what types of expression data has surfaced.  The Bracypodium use case reaches into the classroom and having the iPhone app from phenology could also work for Brachy.  This use case also could target the community colleges, an often forgotten and underrepresented aspect of EOT efforts.  Brutnell added that the outreach coordinator at Cornell is putting together a proposal for iPlant to work on the Brachy use case. 

Goff discussed the lignin biosynthesis use case and said that it could be a good excerise in modeling.  Welch asked if we could involve them by having them evaluate modeling tools.  Goff said that anything that can be done to help them early will be best.  They are very open to sharing information and it would be a great benefit to the group with no cost. 

Grene questioned how the viz group needs that have already been identified will address the overall use cases.  Stanzione said that from a development perspective, we need a prioritized list of what is important for the G2P effort and this could be the top 1-2 needs from each working group. 

Welch suggested that we conduct an anonymous doodle poll that would allow us to prioritze the use cases.  Gendler will set this up and report the results next week.  Brutnell is not comfortable voting if C4 is not on the list.  It was agreed that C4 will be added to the the floral phenology of lesser species where C3 is already.  Kliebenstein and White commented that statistical inference is not represented in the use cases and this was agreed on by the group.  However, Vaughn commented that StatInf is very much in the research stage and it would be hard to define a use case.  Stanzione added that while StatInf might not be represented, there is still work being done for the group; StatInf algorithms are being tested on GPUs and this is not considered a production development. 

Vaughn suggested that we need to look at what parts of the analytic framework that we can come to an abstract understading of to define priorities of the use cases.

Item 4: iPG2P Press Release

Welch believes that there are enough people involved and the G2P effort is sufficiently important that it might merit a press release.  As long as there is agreement, Welch could talk with the KSU Media Relations people to coordinate with the other universities involved.  Grene is in agreement and knows that her university wants these kinds of press releases.  Brutnell thinks the idea is great, especially as there is still confusion as to what iPlant is about.  He has received a lot of positive feedback on Stanzione's presentation at the Plant Geneome awardees meeting and now would be a good time to capitolize on that.

Item 5: Identify Action Items

  •  All: rewrite postdoc ads to be more specific in the needs of the working group.  Once received, they will be reposted at the sites the old ads have been posted at
  • Welch will contact the headhunter and gain access to the database and see if it is worth while
  • All: send Welch contact information of your institutions media relations offices so he can coordinate the press release
  • Gendler will set up anonymous doodle poll for voting on uses cases

Next meeting time: Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 1pm CST

Adjournment: The meeting ended at 1:48pm CDT