DURHAM, NC, September 16, 2008 – The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) at Duke University will host an open house on Tuesday, Oct. 14, featuring its newly completed research environments.

The open house runs from 3 p.m. – 5 p.m. in the new Duke-RENCI engagement center in the Office of Information Technology Telecommunications Building, 390 Science Drive, Suite 106 on Duke’s West Campus. Remarks by Duke University Provost Peter Lange will begin at 3:15 p.m.

The Duke engagement center features a 13-foot by 5-foot multi-touch visualization wall equipped with six high-definition projectors. Designed by engineers and visualization specialists at RENCI, the wall allows users to manipulate high-resolution data using both hands and multiple fingers for a more natural and intuitive data exploration experience. A demonstration of the wall’s capabilities will employ gesture and touch to navigate through a 3D virtual world using a new open source Croquet application called Cobalt being developed at Duke.

“The multi-touch visualization wall is intended to inspire researchers to try new methods of collaborating and interacting with data,” said Marilyn Lombardi, director of RENCI at Duke. “The wall is one way in which we plan to partner with faculty and students at Duke. The center will make it easier for the Duke community to work with RENCI on a wide range of projects of national and state focus.”

RENCI’s other engagement centers include two locations at UNC Chapel Hill (ITS Manning Building and the Health Sciences Library), RENCI at NC State on the Centennial Campus, and engagement centers at UNC Asheville, UNC Charlotte and East Carolina University in Greenville. RENCI’s anchor site is at the Europa Center office building in Chapel Hill.

RENCI…Catalyst for Innovation
The Renaissance Computing Institute brings together computer and discipline scientists, artists, humanists, industry leaders, entrepreneurs, state leaders and educators for collaborations designed to reshape science, the economy, the state of North Carolina and the world. RENCI leverages its expertise and resources in leading edge computing, networking and data technologies to ignite innovation and find solutions to previously intractable problems. Founded in 2004 as a major collaborative venture of Duke University, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the state of North Carolina, RENCI is a statewide virtual organization.  For more, see www.renci.org.