PolarGrid Equipment Heads to Greenland
Indiana University-led PolarGrid cyberinfrastructure project will reach a major milestone this month, as researchers take the new PolarGrid computing equipment to the ice sheets of northern Greenland.
Expedition scientists from PolarGrid partner organizations, the Center for the Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets and Elizabeth City State University, will collect data from Greenland's shrinking ice sheets in an effort to better understand the effects and implications of rising global temperatures.
The new PolarGrid equipment will allow scientists to process data in the field during the course of the expedition and use the results to direct their data collection strategies. The ability to analyze data while still in the field will also help the research team assess the quality of the data and adjust sensors as needed. This is a significant improvement over past methods, in which data was taken back to the U.S. for later analysis.
Technologists from Indiana University have been working throughout the spring to prepare the field equipment, which includes IBM servers and storage arrays, as well as Dell and Panasonic laptops, designed to withstand hard use in extremely harsh conditions. The equipment recently left Indiana University, and is expected to arrive in Greenland later this month. PolarGrid is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation under award number CNS-0723054.
Watch a new video about the PolarGrid project at www.polargrid.org .
The IEEE eScience 2008 Conference, hosted by Indiana University, is now accepting papers and proposals for tutorials; posters, exhibits and demos; and workshops and special sessions. Visit the IEEE eScience 2008 Conference website.
The Core Services group in Research Technologies is now offering source code repository services for Indiana University researchers' software projects. If you write your own code for research projects that you run on IU systems, and would like to manage source code revisions under subversion, you can request a project by sending email to rtadmin at rtinfo.indiana.edu.
Subversion is already installed on Big Red and Quarry. If you want to use subversion on your personal computer you will need to install subversion on your system. Documentation for subversion is available at http://svnbook.red-bean.com/.
Attend this three-day workshop, July 28-30, designed for faculty from a broad range of disciplines: science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), and humanities, arts, and social sciences (HASS). Topics include modeling and simulation techniques, such as cellular automota, dynamic systems, agents, and Monte Carlo methods.
An introduction to using large-scale computational resources will be provided along with credentials and support for continued use of the computational resources after the workshop.
Participants pay a $75 registration fee which will be refunded upon completion of the workshop. Participants cover travel expenses but room, board, most meals and other costs are covered by the SC Education Program.
To register visit http://sc08.sc-education.org/workshops/schedule.php and choose the workshop held at Indiana University Northwest in Gary, IN.
Indiana University and Purdue University announced Thursday, June 19, that they will jointly ask the 2009 General Assembly to create a broad-based research alliance to help the state grow its bio- and life-sciences industries, improve public health and increase the number of physicians being trained in Indiana.
The alliance would focus on research with applications in business, including the potential to create new companies, medical and health-related fields, pharmaceuticals, bio-energy and bio-fuels, nanotechnology, health-care delivery and the environment. Research also would be directed toward improving the overall health of the state. Indiana public health ranks among the lowest of the 50 states, a statistic that is costly to businesses and a drain on economic development.
More information is available.
The Research Technologies division of UITS maintains some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, as part of a comprehensive strategy which includes computers, data storage systems, data collections, instruments and sensor networks, and technical support.
The mission of the Research Technologies division of UITS is to develop, deliver, and support advanced technology solutions that enable new possibilities in research, scholarly endeavors, and creative activity at Indiana University and beyond; and to complement this with education and technology translation activities to improve the productivity and the quality of life of people in Indiana, the nation, and the world. Our values statement is also available online.
