RALEIGH, March 2, 2007—The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) at North Carolina State University will open its doors to the Triangle research community on Friday, March 23, for an open house that will showcase RENCI technologies and collaborations with NC State researchers.
The open house runs from noon – 3 p.m. at the newly opened RENCI at NC State facility, Suite 1500 in the Partners I Building on the Centennial Campus. Remarks by NC State Chancellor James Oblinger, UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser and RENCI Director Dan Reed will begin at 1 pm.
Featured will be visualization work created by the research teams of John Blondin, NC State physics professor, and Christopher Healey, an associate professor in NC State’s computer science department. In addition, NC State’s Institute for Transportation Research and Education will demonstrate a traffic simulation of the use of roundabouts as part of the Hillsborough Street traffic flow improvement effort. The open house also will offer a sampling of RENCI’s work throughout North Carolina and collaborations with its state and national partners. Included will be weather models that combine atmospheric, hydrological and storm surge data and high-resolution animations of the Milky Way.
Founded in 2004 as a major collaboration of Duke University, NC State, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the state of North Carolina, RENCI brings together researchers from all disciplines to addresses our state’s most challenging multidisciplinary problems. By applying technological expertise and world-class computing, networking, visualization and data resources to these issues, RENCI strives to create a collaborative 21st-century problem-solving environment that will spur economic growth and lead to the next generation of transformative discoveries.
Public health issues are among those addressed by RENCI. The institute has partnered with the Triangle biomedical research community to create software, web portals and wireless devices that impact public health and assist researchers studying the genetic causes of disease.
With the opening of RENCI at NC State in January, faculty and staff on the NC State campus now have access to RENCI resources, staff, and collaborators and have the opportunity to contribute to these ongoing research projects. Members of the NC State community also will take the lead on new multidisciplinary research efforts that utilize RENCI’s visualization, computing and data resources and leverage the campus’ expertise in agriculture, environmental sciences, physics, engineering, computer science and other fields.
“We are creating a statewide virtual organization that leverages the expertise of our three founding universities as well as campuses across North Carolina,” said Reed. “The creation of RENCI at NC State is an important milestone because it will help us develop collaborations with faculty at one of North Carolina’s most important research universities. We look forward to some exciting projects that benefit RENCI, NC State, and the state of North Carolina.”
One of the highlights of the open house will be a 14 x 8-foot visualization wall, featuring visualizations created by RENCI, its partners, and NC State faculty, staff and students. Also on display will be state-of-the art video collaboration and editing facilities, including the Access Grid multicast system. Refreshments will be available and musical entertainment will be featured.
“The RENCI at NCSU facility is a key part of our efforts to support successful research and the discovery process with high-end visualization techniques and high-performance computing methods,” NC State Vice Chancellor of Research and Graduate Studies John Gilligan said.
