Collaboration tool makes statewide meeting possible in tough times

Published: August 20, 2009
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Using SmileTiger software on a PC allows emergency managers to attend meetings and receive training without travel.

The challenge: how to assemble emergency managers from 100 counties across North Carolina for an important meeting at a time when budgets are so tight that  traveling is not an option.

The solution: gather the managers for a virtual meeting made possible by the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) and a collaboration tool called SmileTiger, a product of SmileTiger Software Corporation. Read more

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Botany camp offers non-traditional students Web 2.0 curriculum

Published: August 17, 2009

Students from across the state took part in BotCamp 2009 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Students from across the state took part in BotCamp 2009 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill June 19 and July 24-25. BotCamp offered a new innovative curriculum, called Bot 2.0, designed to educate, recruit and retain non-traditional students in the study of botanical science. Read more

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Renaissance Computing Institute Names New Director

Published: August 12, 2009

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CHAPEL HILL, NC — Stanley C. Ahalt, will become the new director of the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), the multi-campus research center with its home base in Chapel Hill, UNC-Chapel Hill Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development Tony Waldrop announced today. Read more

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NLR’s TelePresence Exchange shows future of video conferencing

Published: August 10, 2009
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Image above shows the National Lambda Rail stretching across the United States.

Cypress, Calif. – August 10, 2009 –  National LambdaRail (NLR), the cutting-edge network for advanced research and innovation owned by the U.S. research and education community, in collaboration with AARNet, Australia’s Academic and Research Network, and Cisco, arranged for the first, international Cisco TelePresence sessions over a research and education network between multiple physical locations.

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CWE2010 seeks presentations, posters

Published: August 5, 2009

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Scientists, academicians, technologists, architects and engineers from around the world are invited to present their ideas, experience and views related to computational wind engineering at the Fifth International Symposium on Computational Wind Engineering (CWE2010) in Chapel Hill, NC, May 23-27, 2010. The deadline for submitting all proposals is October 17, 2009.   Read more

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RENCI teams with DICE group to tame the data deluge

Published: July 17, 2009

CHAPEL HILL, NC, July 16, 2009—Almost a year after the Data Intensive Cyber Environments (DICE) research group moved from the University of California at San Diego to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the internationally recognized research group has established deep ties to the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI).

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Clues to an astrophysical mystery

Published: July 14, 2009

A new Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) animation created from a mathematical model shows a black hole moving supersonically through an interstellar gas cloud. This phenomenon often occurs in multiple star systems, where a companion star provides the gas cloud. The gravity of the black hole pulls the gas inward. Early on in the process, a wake forms behind the black hole, much like the wake behind a motorboat. Unlike a motorboat wake, it begins to move back and forth after a while until it whips all the way around the black hole, forming an accretion disk of gas falling into the hole. Read more

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NSF Science Academy students get hands-on look at RENCI visualization systems

Published: July 8, 2009

What better way is there to understand information visualization systems than a first-hand demonstration at the RENCI engagement center at UNC Chapel Hill? Read more

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How to handle a Category 4 storm

Published: June 24, 2009

Hurricane season officially began June 1, and while North Carolinians hope major storms will once again steer clear of our coast, the state’s emergency management division is taking no chances.

The annual major hurricane exercise, a dry run practice of procedures to be followed during a real hurricane, was held June 17 at the Eastern Branch offices of the North Carolina Emergency Management division in Kinston.  It featured a disaster scenario developed through a month-long collaboration between Tom Collins, manager of the state Emergency Management Division’s Eastern Branch, and RENCI’s disaster research team. Read more

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Supermodels

Published: June 19, 2009

(Credit: Staff at RENCI at UNC Asheville and RENCI at East Carolina University and Kevin Hill, NC State department of marine, Earth and atmospheric sciences, also helped to develop these animations)

Hurricane season is upon us, and while no one can predict how many storms will blow our way this year, RENCI has worked to improve storm modeling and put new tools into the hands of emergency responders since Floyd (1999) and Isabel (2003) swept ashore on the North Carolina coast. Read more

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