Cleveland Clinic - Stanford University - University of Utah Meeting @ WCB 2014

Date: July 10, 2014

Time: 1:00 PM EST

Means: In person meeting

Attendees:

1. Ahmet Erdemir (Cleveland Clinic)
2. Jason Halloran (Cleveland Clinic)
3. Joy Ku (Stanford University)
4. Jeff Weiss (University of Utah)
5. Ben Ellis (University of Utah)

Agenda:

This was a free form meeting to bring team members from collaborating institutes for face-to-face interactions. There was no set agenda; rather many topics of interest relevant to Open Knee(s) were discussed.

Immediate Action Items:

No immediate action items were noted.

Notes:

1. Joy described the cloud computing interface developed for Open Knee(s). This interface allows using FEBio to reproduce finite element analysis results or to run modified models. It can be implemented for any FEBio model. Hooks are in place to use academic, e.g., XSEDE, or commercially available, e.g., Amazon Elastic Computing, compute servers. Joy noted that she wanted to start an FEBio community within Simtk.org. Launching of the cloud computing interface may be a good opportunity to promote this.
2. The team also discussed various incentives for model sharing. From cloud computing perspective, particularly when provided through Simtk.org, many opportunities exist. Those who share their models may have access to Simtk.org as a computing resource, e.g., increased quota to run simulations on Simtk.org servers. Sharing may also seed collaboration and result in development of cross-institutional grant applications. Jeff noted that people are starting to share models for finite element analysis. From FEBio perspective, plug-ins can be shared, possibly with different licensing than FEBio as they can be linked without the need to compile the FEBio code.
3. Licensing of software and models in relevance to FEBio and Open Knee(s) has been discussed. Open Knee(s) is currently distributed through Creative Commons Share Alike licensing, a copy left scheme promoting continuing transparency. FEBio is currently distributed as academic free (for non-commercial use). Commercial licensing is available for a small fee. Such scheme allows FEBio developers to closely track user base.
4. Discussions emphasized the need for the investigators (FEBio or Open Knee(s)) to report to NSF/NIH the impact of the software and/or models other than just publications. This is also related to sustainability of software and model development. Currently both FEBio and Open Knee(s) projects are supported by a small development team funded by federal grants. The team is responsible to realize the specific aims of the grant proposals. Nonetheless, a significant amount of time and effort has been spent to support the user base, i.e., by answering questions, fixing bugs, etc. There is an interest in building the community where people can help each other. This has been working through FEBio forums. Some funding, e.g., for the case of Simtk.org, keeps the site up and running and make upgrades. It is possible to apply additional funding to bridge FEBio and Opensim, therefore integrate Simtk.org with FEBio, possibly through Open Knee(s). A center grant (or a BRP) may be the means for that. Nonetheless, driving projects with clinical impact are needed.
5. The groups also discussed various tools they have been using to facilitate their workflows. For citation management, Endnote and Zotero were noted. For data management and transfer IRODS was mentioned.