Arkansas Business News Story
State Researchers Receive $3.3M Stimulus Grant for Cyberinfrastructure
By Arkansas Business Staff
9/3/2009 8:20:48 AM
FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas scientists, students and information-technology workers will benefit from a new $3.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The award, made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, will enable researchers at the University of Arkansas and other colleges and universities in the state to build and support cyberinfrastructure and to train students and workers in information-technology systems, tools and services.
The grant, titled CI-TRAIN, or Cyberinfrastructure for Transformational Scientific Discovery in Arkansas and West Virginia, is part of a broader award to create a research consortium between the two states, which have researchers specializing in high-performance computing, visualization and modeling. At the University of Arkansas specifically, the federal funding will enhance supercomputing resources at the Arkansas High Performance Computing Center, which supports research in computational science, nano- and ferroelectric materials, multiscale visualization and many other research projects that require massive data storage.
"Beyond the critically important goal of helping scientists discover, understand and solve complex problems that affect our lives, this award will enhance undergraduate education, provide training for information-technology workers and support statewide initiatives such as the Arkansas Research and Education Optical Network," said Amy Apon, professor of computer science and computer engineering, director of the computing center and principal investigator for the project.
In addition to Apon, other University of Arkansas researchers involved in the project are Fred Limp, University Professor, anthropology; Laurent Bellaiche, physics professor; and Douglas Spearot, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. Srinivasan Ramaswamy, professor and chair of the department of computer science at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock is also a co-principal investigator.
From a research perspective, the overall goal of the project is to create a nationally competitive environment for computation and visualization - techniques for creating images, diagrams and animations of scientific concepts and processes - and to develop both hardware and software to create and capture data that will enable a broad range of research in science and engineering. The partnership will include a substantial shared cluster - linked computers operating as a single computer - hosted by the Arkansas High Performance Computing Center. |
