The upcoming Spring meeting of the North Carolina Emergency Management Association, the 2007 North Carolina All Hazards Conference, will feature much of the work being done through RENCI’s disaster research efforts.
Open house offers a glimpse at RENCI innovations
CHAPEL HILL, NC—The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) will open its doors to the public on Friday, March 2, for an open house that will showcase a wide range of technologies and projects related to disaster research, bioinformatics, public health, high performance computing and high resolution visualization. Read more
A recipe for disaster research
Disasters—from hurricanes and floods in the east to landslides in the mountains to ice storms in the central Piedmont—are a prime example of a multifaceted issue that no single discipline can effectively address. And they are costly: Between 1980 and 2005, North Carolina suffered more than 20 weather-related disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage, according to NOAA’s National Climate Data Center. It is one of four states, along with Florida, Georgia and Alabama, to endure more than 20 billion-dollar weather disasters during that time.
Technology expert kicks off RENCI Distinguished Lecture series
CHAPEL HILL, NC, December 18, 2006—A renowned technology expert from IBM who is responsible for identifying emerging technologies and marketplace developments critical to the future of the IT industry will launch the Renaissance Computing Institute’s (RENCI) Distinguished Lecture Series with a talk at 2 p.m. Feb. 8, 2007 at the Friday Center for Continuing Education, 100 Friday Center Drive. Read more
RENCI takes flight
On a bright December morning, something was afoot in the skies over Franklinton, North Carolina. Not a plane, and certainly not a caped superhero, it was RENCI’s Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) on its maiden voyage. And while not as dramatic as Wilbur and Orville’s first flight more than 100 years ago, it was nonetheless a milestone reached in the Institute’s disaster management and response research. Read more
Genetics “bake-off” results to be announced at February meeting
CHAPEL HILL, December 18, 2006–The Carolina Center for Exploratory Genetic Analysis (CCEGA), will present the results of its genetics “bake-off” at a meeting Feb. 2, 2007 in the Health Science Library building on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. CCEGA is a collaborative project funded by the National Institutes of Health and led by the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) and genetics department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Read more
Dan Reed named AAAS fellow
Dan Reed, director of the Renaissance Computing Institute, is among the newest fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The association is honoring Reed for his “outstanding research in the field of high performance computing, exemplary professional leadership, and distinguished national service.” He becomes a fellow of the AAAS section on information, computing and communication. Read more
RENCI gives Carolina community access to USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s Visual History Archive
CHAPEL HILL, NC, November 20, 2006—Students, faculty, and staff at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will have access to the world’s largest visual history archive beginning this month, when the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) deploys a 5.5-terabyte digital media cache of testimonies from the USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s Visual History Archive. Read more
Birds of a Feather session to examine petascale performance issues
TAMPA, FLA, November 1, 2006—Those interested in the challenge of evaluating the performance and reliability of petascale computing systems and of developing application codes that scale effectively on these systems should plan to attend the SC06 Birds of a Feather Session “Evaluating Petascale Infrastructure Systems: Benchmarks, Models, and Applications.” The BoF will take place Wednesday, Nov. 15, from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. at the Tampa Convention Center, room 17 (please confirm the room number with signs in the convention center). Read more
Tagged Cyberinfrastructure, petabytes
RENCI debuts at International Supercomputing Conference
TAMPA, FLA, November 1, 2006-Imagine if, in the midst of a hurricane, flood or severe storm, emergency response teams could interface with a high-resolution, near real-time computer model and determine what neighborhoods were likely to be affected, how far inland storm surges would reach, how water runoff and flooding might be impacted by development, and the safest evacuation routes based on constantly changing conditions. Read more
