Visual Decision Pathways

Sharron Docherty understands that medical care for a critically ill infant involves much more than treatments designed to bring about a cure. Read more

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National Weather Service taps RENCI to explore decision support services for weather emergencies

CHAPEL HILL, NC–NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) Office of Science and Technology will provide $400,000 to the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) to develop and evaluate technologies that will help the emergency management community prepare for and respond to weather events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards and floods.   Read more

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UNC scientist: Tropical storms will move Gulf oil

Hurricane Alex ADCIRC model

What will a hurricane do to the massive oil slick churning in the Gulf of Mexico?

Hurricane Alex, which impacted south Texas and parts of Mexico in June, is the best source of data  scientists have for studying this question.  According to Rick Luettich, an oceanographer and director of UNC Chapel Hill’s Center of Excellence for Natural Hazards, Coastal Infrastructure and Emergency Management, Alex, a minimal hurricane, taught us that a tropical storm absolutely will move the oil. Read more

Three Duke research teams selected for new campus info viz program

Visualization of the construction of Francesco a Folloni, Campania, Italy. What began as a class project will expand through the RENCI@Duke Applied Scientific and Information Visualization program.

DURHAM, NC–RENCI experts in visualization, visual analytics, and data mining and management will work with three Duke University research teams—one in the School of Medicine and two in art, art history, and visual studies—on projects to improve treatments for prostate cancer and to document the evolution of historic places, artwork, and art markets.

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Storm Surge 2010

GREENVILLE, May 28—RENCI@ECU’s Inundation Animation Portal features animations created by faculty, students, and staff that attempt to provide a greater understanding of the devastating effects of storm surges related to coastal storms and hurricanes.

NSF names Alan Blatecky acting head of cyberinfrastructure office

Alan Blatecky, far left, with UNC Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development Tony Waldrop, School of Government Dean Mike Smith, and former Chancellor James Moeser.

WASHINGTON, D.C., — Alan Blatecky, the former Deputy Director of  RENCI and Interim Director from December 2007 – September 2009, was named Acting Director of the National Science Foundation’s Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI) this week by NSF Director Arden Bement.   Read more

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A particle of difference

Uma Shankar and Alexis Zubrow know all too well that what you breathe can be hazardous to your health. The two are research associates at the Institute for the Environment at UNC Chapel Hill who study atmospheric pollutants such as particulate matter and ozone and how technology tools can be used to help decision makers understand their properties and make informed decisions related to human health and environmental quality. With help from RENCI, they are now able to “see” microscopic pollutant particles (particulate matter, or PM) and examine how PM populations are distributed in size and how their physical characteristics change over time. Read more

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IHSS funding to help RENCI evaluate, improve biometric recognition systems used by Department of Homeland Security

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Concept image of possible future biometric identification system.

CHAPEL HILL, NC, May 18, 2010—RENCI experts in informatics and computational performance will work with Cambridge Intelligent Systems (CIS), a Raleigh-based technology company that specializes in intelligent image analysis technologies, to improve biometric systems used to track and identify suspected terrorists as they enter and leave the U.S. Read more

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Symposium brings global computational wind engineering community to Chapel Hill

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CHAPEL HILL, May 19, 2010–The Fifth International Symposium on Computational Wind Engineering ( CWE2010) will bring more than 300 experts from over 30 countries to Chapel Hill to discuss computational wind engineering issues that impact homeland security, sustainable energy, building design, large bridge design, urban design, mitigation of severe storms, and a host of other issues. Read more

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RENCI to host computational science summer courses

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Note: Enrollement for the Many-core Processors course is now closed.

CHAPEL HILL, NC—Graduate students, post-docs and faculty and industry professionals can participate in summer programs offered by the Virtual School of Computational Science and Engineering (VSCSE) free of charge at RENCI (the Renaissance Computing Institute), 100 Europa Dr., Chapel Hill. Read more

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