Category Archives: Research

Overview Melissa Pasquinelli, a textile researcher and assistant professor in the College of Textiles at NC State University, uses computer simulations of polymers to figure out new ways to take advantage of polymers’ unique properties to make advanced materials. Pasquinelli teamed with RENCI visualization and data software development specialist Sidharth Thakur to develop a suite […]

Overview Fine particles—such as pollen, dust, ash and pollutants—are constantly whirling through the air we breathe. But which particles are harmful, and in what concentrations? Government agencies responsible for safeguarding the health of humans and the environment must set emission standards and other regulations based on what they know about the properties of fine particles […]

Overview The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model is a mesoscale numerical weather prediction system designed to serve both forecasting and atmospheric research needs. In order to produce high-resolution forecasts for North Carolina, RENCI ran WRF at 12km and 4km (or 1.3km for special cases) resolution twice a day to produce a 36 hour forecast. With […]

Voluminous: Volume Visualization Tool Authors: David Borland. Visualization lead Jeffrey L. Tilson. Scientific application lead Installers and example data download at: https://code.renci.org/gf/project/voluminous/frs/ Description Voluminous is a tool developed to assist in the visualization of volumetric scalar fields and in particular for finding and emphasizing locations in the field that separate positive and negative regions.  It was […]

Overview This image is a graph-based network visualization consisting of traffic from UNC department subnets to external machine connections. The graph is placed in three dimensions using a gravity model where each edge provides an attractive force and each node provides a repelling force. This can be used to variably weight nodes in the graph […]

Overview Understanding the worldwide impact of grants at a Research I institute can be challenging. UNC has been tracking its grant awards, and is gradually building up a historical database of grants that spans decades. However, a database is merely that–a collection of data. The university sought a closer look at where grant money was […]

Overview Supernovas are dying stars that explode, causing a sudden burst of radiation that can briefly outshine an entire galaxy, before fading after several weeks or months. Astrophysicists theorize that as the iron core of a star cools and runs short on fuel, a shockwave of energy ripples back through the star and it explodes. […]

Overview Natural disasters such as hurricanes heavily impact the United States’ East and Gulf coasts. This creates the need for large-scale modeling in the areas of meteorology and ocean sciences, coupled with an integrated environment for analysis and information dissemination. In turn, there is an increased need for large-scale, distributed, high-performance resources and data environments. […]