Memo to Media: UNC Office of the President Awards UNCW
5/17/2004 8:05:07 AM
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Media Advisory
TO: Media
FROM: Mimi Cunningham
Assistant to the Chancellor for University Relations 910/962-3171
DATE: May 14, 2004
RE: UNC Office of the President Awards UNCW
Major Grid Computing Grant
Undergraduate computer science students at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington will be conducting research that will significantly benefit faculty scientists and businesses thanks to a two-year, $557,634 grid computing grant announced by President Molly Corbett Broad at this morning’s UNC Board of Governors meeting.
The grant proposal, written by UNCW, was one of four funded by the Office of the President. It will be implemented in partnership with East Carolina University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, Western Carolina University, and Cape Fear Community College also in collaboration with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Wake Technical Community College.
This research project will capitalize on UNCW’s prototype graphical user interface (GUI) for grid computing and its faculty expertise in computer science, bioinformatics, mathematics, e-business, and computational chemistry. The grid GUI will provide North Carolina researchers easy access to high-powered statistical and analytical computations. Currently, researchers spend large amounts of time writing programs to allow them to analyze huge amounts of data, such as that involved in genetics and molecular modeling. Once this project is completed, the end user will have access to a simple, visual, click and drag method to quickly organize pre-packaged but discipline-specific programming instructions so the user can easily explore data and make observations.
The project is collaborative in the work that will be done with other universities as well as internally at UNCW. The grant proposal was the first ever prepared jointly by the Department of Computer Science, the Cameron School of Business Department of Information Systems and Operations Management, and the Information Technology Systems Division. A variety of academic disciplines are participating in the project as well.
Please contact Dr. Ron Vetter, chair of the Department of Computer Science, at his cell 910/538-3523 or at his office, 910/962-7192 for more information. Dr. Ann Stapleton, assistant professor of biological sciences, is also available Friday, May 14, to discuss how this project will benefit scientists on her cell phone at 910/512-1685 or after Monday at her office, 910/962-7267. If she is driving, leave a message and she will call you right back.
University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Title: Fostering Undergraduate Research Partnerships through at Graphical User Environment for the North Carolina Computing Grid
Principal Investigator: Ronald J. Vetter
Award: $557,634 over two years
Partnering Institutions:
East Carolina University
North Carolina Central University
North Carolina State University
Western Carolina University
Cape Fear Community College
Summary: The mission is to develop an easy-to-use interface for grid computing which can be used for a wide-range of applications. The interface will provide a view of grid resources, services, and their interactions. Through collaborations of faculty researchers and undergraduate student programmers, a wide range of tools and user library modules will be developed. These tools are commonly needed for computational chemistry, bioinformatics, human-computer interfaces, workflow programming, combinatorics, and e-business applications. The project will move a prototype grid graphical user interface to production. The project will also develop a series of workshops, presentations, and online resources to train students, faculty and business personnel to use grid computing, in support of the development of the North Carolina Grid initiative. UNCW will share its grid technology developments and offer training and education activities with other North Carolina community colleges and universities.
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