Databases are now well established resources on many Hubs, and have been used for more than 3 years by large scale research projects and smaller research groups to support the collection, exploration, and sharing of data. We will take a tour of the databases at the Hubs, investigating why Hub communities need databases, and how databases are used to promote collaborative research. We will also take a brief look at the process of building a customized database, describing how the components of the database technology are used in conjunction with existing Hub infrastructure such as groups and tools. Finally, we will present the newest development in databases: a component that allows users to create their own databases at the Hub.

Ann Christine Catlin is a research scientist in the Rosen Center for Advanced Computing at Purdue University. She received a B.S. in Mathematics from Seton Hill University and an M.S. in Mathematics from Notre Dame University. She was a research scientist in the Computer Science Department at Purdue before moving to the Rosen Center. Catlin worked on the design and development of problem-solving environments for partial differential equation-based applications on multi-computer platforms, and co-authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications over a ten year period about her research. She created a knowledge-based shipboard troubleshooting system for the U.S. Navy, for which she won the School of Science Merit award for Extraordinary Achievement in 2004 and the Techpoint Mira Award in 2005. Catlin's work at the Rosen Center has focused on creating a database technology for the HUBzero platform and using the technology to build customized databases. She has built 30 medical and scientific databases across 8 Hubs, supporting global data sharing for cancer research, infusion pump alert analysis, earthquake engineering, disaster and failure studies, nutrition science, pharmaceutical excipients, thermal measurements, and more. She is currently developing a service that allows Hub users to create their own databases.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Ann Christine Catlin; Michael McLennan (2012), "Hub Databases: Moving Collaborative Research Forward," https://help.hubzero.org/resources/850.

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