RENCI, CWC host film examining the tech gender gap

Published: February 19, 2016

The scarcity of female and minority computer scientists and software engineers is a well-documented gender, racial, and economic issue. Already, there are more tech jobs than computer science graduates to fill them, and a 2014 White House report predicts that by 2020, more than 1 million software engineering jobs will go unfilled. Yet, the number of women earning computer science degrees dropped by 10 percent in the first decade of the 21st century, according to the National Science Foundation.

CODE director Robin Hauser Reynolds interviews Kimberly Bryant, Founder and CEO of Black Girls Code.

CODE director Robin Hauser Reynolds interviews Kimberly Bryant, Founder and CEO of Black Girls Code.

The film CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap examines why girls and people of color are not seeking educational opportunities in computer science and explains how cultural mindsets, stereotypes, educational hurdles, unconscious biases, and sexism play a role in this national crisis.

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The Internet of Samples aims to break down research barriers

Published: February 17, 2016

The Internet of Things may be all the rage, but a group of scientists that met recently at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) wants to add the Internet of Samples (iSamples) to your radar.

iSamples teamwork

A multidisciplinary group of scientists and researchers brainstorm potential elements of the iSamples action plan for the coming year.

Across the world, scientists engage in research that requires them to collect physical samples, which are often unique and difficult to acquire. Think of samples from the moon, core samples of the Earth, or those collected by submersibles sent to the depths of the ocean.

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The RENCI student experience

Published: January 13, 2016

Internship. Student Research Assistantship. These words once conjured images of time spent drudging away in corporate office air conditioning or musty back rooms of a university department. Time spent filing papers, making and slugging coffee, or solving the mystery of the broken copy machine (again!).

Times have changed, though, and for many students, the experience of working in the “real world” translates into some of the best learning that college can offer.

Consider a recent Gallup-Purdue University study of college graduates that indicates students who take part in internships or other college experiences requiring them to apply classroom knowledge double their odds of being happily engaged employees once they begin their career.

At RENCI, students work in a variety of fields – from project management to communications to research studies in multiple scientific fields. While each student experience at RENCI is different, most agree that spending time at RENCI offers the opportunity to hone skillsets and contribute to a team. Following are a few of their stories.  Read more

iRODS Consortium welcomes Texas Advanced Computing Center to Partner Program

Published: January 11, 2016

CHAPEL HILL, NC, January 11, 2016 – The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), a facility that provides scientists with some of the world’s most powerful computing resources to enable discoveries, is the latest organization to join the iRODS Partner Program, the iRODS Consortium announced today. Read more

iRODS helps astronomers take control of massive survey data

Published: January 7, 2016

CHAPEL HILL, NC – An international research team studying many of the tough questions in astronomy, including the evolution of galaxies and the nature of dark matter, now have a way to query their massive data sets, store and retrieve data and corresponding metadata, and transport files and images.

By partnering with data specialists at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) who develop the integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS) researchers and students now have online databases for two large astronomical data sets: the REsolved Spectroscopy of a Local VolumE (RESOLVE) survey and the Environmental COntext (ECO) catalog. Read more

RENCI brings business and UNC researchers together for NSF-funded workshop

Published: December 7, 2015

iUCRC-1Carolina researchers, representatives of area
businesses, and program officers with the National Science Foundation met Dec. 2 and 3 at RENCI to discuss collaborative research opportunities and partnerships aimed at translating academic research into competitive value for business. The workshop focused on establishing a new research site at Carolina of an NSF-funded Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) called the Center for Visual and Decision Informatics (CDVI). Based at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, CDVI already has research sites at Drexel University in Philadelphia and Tampere University of Technology in Finland. 

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iRODS Consortium welcomes NICS at University of Tennessee as newest member at SC15

Published: November 18, 2015

Consortium membership doubles since last Supercomputing Conference.

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 18, 2015 – The National Institute of Computational Sciences (NICS) at the University of Tennessee today became the 13th member of the iRODS Consortium, the membership-based foundation organized to sustain the integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS) as free open source data management software.

The newest consortium member was announced in the RENCI booth (#181) on the SC15 show floor at the Austin Convention Center.

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RENCI 2015 Supercomputing Booth Schedule

Published: November 12, 2015

Transforming discovery through integrated, comprehensive data management

Published: November 12, 2015

Software Defined Networking gives BEN a boost

Published: November 11, 2015

BEN Logo 9 finalBreakable Experimental Network (BEN) is now faster and SDN-enabled

CHAPEL HILL, NC, November 10, 2015 – A collaboration between researchers at RENCI and the University of Houston means that RENCI’s Breakable Experimental Network (BEN) will be faster and easier to use for scientists with data intensive research problems to solve.

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