Researchers at Triangle area universities create, process and analyze huge amounts of data every day, and managing that growing stream has become a key challenge for the knowledge age university. Read more
Lecture series looks at human beings 2050
What will it mean to be human in 2050? Environmentalists speculate that by then, the climate in central North Carolina may feel like Central Florida today. A better understanding of genetics could lead to cures for deadly diseases and new technologies could put sensors in our bodies to monitor vital signs and administer personalized doses of medicines. Read more
Tagged Endeavors magazine, Friday Center
RENCI hits Top 500 list
CHAPEL HILL – The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) scored its first ranking on the Top 500 supercomputers list with Ocracoke, its new IBM Blue Gene/L system.
Ocracoke, with 1,024 dual processor compute nodes, 1 gigabyte of memory per node and a peak performance of 5.7 teraflops, or trillions of calculations per second, was ranked 104th on the list. The system was installed in April and will be used for creating complex models and simulations and for analyzing and managing massive data sets. Read more
Tagged Ocracoke, supercomputing, Top 500
Computing community leaders praise house appropriators for increasing research funding to aid competitiveness
Washington, D.C. – Leaders of the Computing Research Association (CRA) and ACM’s U.S. Public Policy Committee (USACM) today commended Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) and his colleagues on a House Appropriations Subcommittee for fully supporting the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) in legislation passed by the subcommittee today. Read more
RENCI taps Georgia Tech for economic development director
David A. Knowles, an executive experienced in economic development, business assistance and strategic planning, will lead economic development programs at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), RENCI Director Dan Reed announced today. Read more
Tagged David Knowles, economic development
New media, new ways of thinking
Graduate students today, unlike their parents and professors, grew up using computers, have relied on the Web for research and entertainment for most of their lives, and use email, instant messaging and blogs as effortlessly as previous generations use the telephone. Read more
Tagged Cathy Davidson, New Media
True Grid
Lavanya Ramakrishnan has seen her grid computing focus shift from security to scientific applications over the past four years. After finishing her Masters degree at Indiana University in 2002, she continued her work in grid security at MCNC before moving to the newly-formed Renaissance Computing Institute in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she jumped feet-first into the world of scientific applications.
Tagged Lavanya Ramakrishnan, MCNC
Bringing technology to bear on critical issues
When it comes to hurricanes, Mother Nature still rules, as Katrina so vividly reminded us last year. That doesn’t mean humans are powerless in their struggles with major coastal storms. High-performance computing experts at RENCI are working with marine and atmospheric scientists and North Carolina disaster response agencies to use advanced technologies to improve storm prediction, modeling, and mitigation. Read more
RENCI Science Gateway team unveils TeraGrid Bioportal
A web-based work environment developed at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) will give users of the National Science Foundation’s TeraGrid easy access to a wide range of bioinformatics and biomedical applications and databases and will allow the national biology research community to access computing, data, and other resources offered through the TeraGrid. Read more
Workshop addresses computational challenges in biomedicine
Researchers and practitioners from the high performance computing and biomedical communities are invited to attend a workshop that addresses the challenges and opportunities collaboration and cooperation between these two communities. Called “Challenges in Biomedicine,” the workshop is sponsored by the Computing Research Association (CRA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It will be held June 15 – 16 at the Bethesda Marriott Hotel, Bethesda, MD. Read more
