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2.6 Cost AppropriationsGOAL: Assign appropriate proportion of the costs for preventative maintenance; calibration; repairs;and equipment, instrumentation, and sensor replacement and upgrades to the NSF-supported NEESoperations subaward and to the university.All calibrations are done internally by UIUC and costs for the work are included in the AWP.Example calibrations were provided. The site has a maintenance contract with Shore-Western that isalso funded through the AWP.2.7 Network Technology UpgradesThe site did receive funding for a network technology upgrade to purchase a second Krypton system thatwould be available to researchers at the site as well as a network resource. The system has beenpurchased and is being utilized in current research projects.2.8 Equipment MaintenanceGOAL: Maintain all equipment, instrumentation, sensors, software, data acquisition, computers, anddocumentation developed or acquired during the Major Research Equipment and FacilityConstruction (MREFC) phase or under the current NEES operations award, including routinecalibrationsThe UIUC LBCB’s are the critical components. With three LBCBs there is a back-up, however, muchof the schedule in the foreseeable future requires the use of the three LBCBs in parallel. No downtimehas resulted from lack of maintenance. The site has a maintenance contact with Shore-Western tomaintain the LBCBs.2.9 Equipment InventoryGOAL: Maintain an inventory of equipment, instrumentation, sensors, personnel, documentation,contact information, and other information for users in a network-wide equipment site database.The site has information for equipment, sensors, instrumentation, and personnel on the NEEShub.However, some information is out of date..2.10 SchedulingGOAL: Coordinate the scheduling of shared-use research and education projects with NEEScomm.The NEES@UIUC schedule is a major concern. Utilizing data provided by UIUC in FY12 Q2,currently there are six scheduled projects with two projects (Sanders and Zhao) in progress. One project(Rix) has completed. A project-by-project summary of delays for FY12 is provided below. These delayshave already occurred within just two quarters of FY12 passing. Most projects that are scheduled to testthis calendar year are on average 3 months behind. It is difficult to see how these delays will not impactprojects scheduled for testing in the next calendar year. It should also be noted that the Sanders project isbeyond the 6-year limit and NSF has already accommodated this situation once. Additionally, the site hasagreed to accept a new NEESR project.The site has repeatedly noted that delays are due to the fact that they are doing work that has never beendone before. It is acknowledged that the capabilities offered by the site are innovative and the LBCBsprovide testing options available at few laboratories in the U.S. However, all NEES sites are unique insome way but few have experienced the degree of delays as UIUC. Many of these project delays appearto be traceable to LBCB control issues. Given the control system was developed primarily in-house, thesite is required to develop unique control algorithms for each test. Such development is time-consuming12