SCI Welcomes Juliana Freire
Juliana Freire joins the SCI Institute from the School of Computing at the University of Utah where she is an Associate Professor. Before joining the University of Utah, she was member of the technical staff at the Database Systems Research Department at Bell Laboratories (Lucent Technologies) and an Assistant Professor at OGI/OHSU. An important theme in Professor Freire’s work is the development of data management technology to address new problems introduced by emerging applications, including the Web and scientific applications. Her recent research has focused on two main topics: Provenance management for computational tasks and Web mining. Professor Freire is an active member of the database community, having co-authored over 80 technical papers and holding 4 U.S. patents. She is a recipient of an NSF CAREER and an IBM Faculty award. She has chaired or co-chaired several workshops and conferences, and she has participated as a program committee member in over 50 events. Her research has been funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, the University of Utah and the State of Utah.
NSF Open Wildland Fire Modeling
SCI, in collaboration with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado at Denver have teamed up to tackle the challenges associated with modeling the complexities of wildfires.www.openwfm.org
The losses associated with wildfires and the wish to understand, predict, and control wildfires have driven researchers to create ever more detailed and powerful computational models. However, the necessary sophistication and realism requires scientific computing and analysis processes of a complexity that has itself become a hindrance to further progress and education. In addition, the research is done by geographically disperse interdisciplinary groups, and making their models interoperate is a challenge. This project strives to overcome this complexity and challenges to collaboration by state-of-the-art software engineering, visualization, and collaboration tools. The results will find applications in wildfire research, education, training, and management.
SCI Research on Display at SLC Library
The SCI Institute, in partnership with the Department of Radiology has been working towards new goals in public outreach. A three-part exhibit is now on display at the Salt Lake Public Library and includes hands-on multi-media, Q and A from the University's leading radiologists, a four lecture series, and a 20 piece gallery display which will run through December. Overall, it has been a great success and has opened the public eye to a glimpse of what we are working on.Greg Jones Named Associate Director of Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute
The Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute is delighted to welcome Dr. Greg Jones back to the SCI Institute as our Associate Director. Dr. Jones previously served as our Associate Director from 2000 to 2005. He was then called by Governor Jon M. Huntsman to serve as the State Science Adviser to the Governor of Utah and Director of the Utah Economic Clusters Initiative from 2005 to 2007. He was awarded the 2007 Medal for Science and Technology by Utah Governor Jon M. Huntsman for his science leadership to the State of Utah. Most recently, he served as the Executive Director of Research at the Moran Eye Center.
Tolga Tasdizen to Serve as a USTAR Faculty Member Within the SCI Institute
Dr. Tolga Tasdizen has joined the SCI faculty as an Assistant Professor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and will become the SCI Institute's second USTAR Faculty member, joining Dr. Guido Gerig. Prior to being appointed USTAR Faculty, Tolga was a Research Assistant Professor in the School of Computing at the University of Utah. Dr. Tasdizen received his Ph.D. in Engineering from Brown University and is an expert in image processing, creating state-of-the-art research applied to biomedical and biological applications such as reconstructing neural circuit diagrams from large numbers of very high resolution microscopy images. His research interests include image analysis, computer vision and pattern recognition. The Utah Science and Technology Research Initiative (USTAR) is a state-funded, long-term effort to strengthen Utah's "knowledge economy".
Steve Corbató Named Director of Cyberinfrastructure Strategic Initiatives at the University of Utah
The Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute congratulates Dr. Steve Corbató on being named Director of Cyberinfrastructure Strategic Initiatives at the University of Utah. Dr. Corbató has served as the SCI Institute's Associate director since May of 2006. Steve will report directly to VP of Information Technology, Steve Hess and help the University with future cyberinfrastructure plans. While Steve will be moving to the INSCC Building, we'll definitely still see him on a regular basis as we'll work together on future computing initiatives. Steve is already working on multiple projects and ideas with SCI Institute and other University of Utah faculty.
Center for Computational Earth Sciences at the SCI Institute
Ross Whitaker (PI), Chuck Hansen, Claudio Silva, Valerio Pascucci, and Greg Jones have been awarded funding to create the Center for Computational Earth Sciences at the SCI Institute.
Visualizing Election Polls
A New, Animated, Interactive Way to Analyze Opinion DataMedia Contacts
Oct. 6, 2008 - Do you want to know the percentage of white women who support vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin? What about college-educated versus high school-educated white women? Or those who also hunt?
University of Utah computer scientists have written software they hope eventually will allow news reporters and citizens to easily, interactively and visually answer such questions when analyzing election results, political opinion polls or other surveys.
NVIDIA Recognizes University Of Utah as a CUDA Center Of Excellence
University of Utah Latest in a Growing List of Exceptional Schools Demonstrating Pioneering Work in Parallel ComputingSanta Clara, CA & Salt Lake City, UT - July 31, 2008 - NVIDIA Corporation, the worldwide leader in visual computing technologies, and the University of Utah today announced that the university has been recognized as a CUDA Center of Excellence, a milestone that marks the beginning of a significant partnership between the two organizations.
CRCNS: Fighting Blindness
Despite great advances in neuroscience and medical technology in recent decades, nearly ten million Americans still suffer blindness due to retinal degenerative diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP), age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma. Unfortunately, current treatments available for these conditions are still quite limited. A primary challenge to developing effective treatments is the need for a complete understanding of the highly complex and delicate systems that compose the retina and how those systems change in response to degenerative disorders.Remodeling processes that occur in the neuronal pathways within the retina during the course of retinal deterioration are of particular importance to the development of treatments for these conditions. Researchers at the Robert E. Marc Laboratory at the Moran Eye Center are collaborating with the SCI Institute on a project supported by the NIH-NIBIB (grant number 5R01EB005832) to develop high-throughput techniques for reconstructing and visualizing the neural structures that compose the retina in order to meet these challenges.
Scientific Background
