Category Archives: Blog

The iRODS data management platform and the iRODS Consortium that works to sustain it are making waves well beyond their home base in Chapel Hill, NC. This week, three of the smart, savvy people behind iRODS and the Consortium (iRODS originator Reagan Moore, Consortium Executive Director Dan Bedard, and Chief Technologist Jason Coposky) traveled to […]

Professors at NC State University and UNC-Chapel Hill have access to a tool that can bring both excitement and exploration into their curriculum – the Social Computing Room (SCR). While the resource is available on both campuses, educators can be unsure about how it effectively fits into their course plans. NC State’s Coffee and Viz […]

DataNet Tools and Services was the topic of a session at the recent Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, held last month in Baltimore. Chris Lenhardt and Mike Conway presented in the session representing the UNC Chapel Hill-based DataNet Federation Consortium (DFC). Chris is lead of the DFC Facilities and Operations team and is active […]

Last week, I was asked to speak to young professionals about work-life balance, so I have been pondering this topic a lot. How do you juggle both a full-time, demanding and exacting career and the often-contradictory demands of raising little human beings to become productive members of society? To be honest, I think the “secret” […]

In three years, the WSSI shows that software best practices can make a difference in water science. Ask any elementary school student and they will tell you that water is a renewable resource. Unfortunately, this “fact” comes with a few complications, like the truth that if we are not careful stewards of our water, it […]

New funding for DHS Center of Excellence means continued collaboration with RENCI on coastal issues The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently announced it will provide $20 million over five years to fund the Coastal Resilience Center of Excellence (COE) at UNC-Chapel Hill. That’s a good thing for people in coastal areas who each year […]

Need your data to remain useful and discoverable over its entire lifespan? Metadata is the key. Metadata—or data about data—and its importance in life sciences research will be the discussion topic at an upcoming webinar featuring RENCI’s Dan Bedard, Interim Executive Director of the iRODS Consortium, Stephen Worth, director of Global New Business Development Operations […]

“Every single one of you are makers.” These words from Dona Sarkar kicked off UNC Chapel Hill’s recent Pearl Hacks event. Sarkar is an engineer manager at Microsoft, author, and fashion designer, and this past weekend she was in Chapel Hill inspiring an audience of over 600 high school and college-age women gathered to create […]

There has been a growing buzz in the media about the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education and the struggle to ensure students receive enough of it in public schools. Part of the reason for this intense focus is that the U.S. Department of Labor expects there will be 1.2 million job […]

Science, like music, is an international language. No matter their cultural, ethnic, or religious backgrounds, no matter if they conduct fieldwork in the U.S. or run a lab in central Asia, scientists always seem able to find common ground.