News
Nvidia Fellowship Awarded
SCI graduate student Guo-Shi Li was selected among many applications for an Nvidia fellowship. This was a highly competitive process and is a great honor for him. Guo-Shi Li's graduate advisor is SCI faculty member Chuck Hansen.Chris Johnson Testifies Before Senate Sub-Committee
Chris Johnson, SCI Institute director, testified June 23rd on Capitol Hill before the Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus. His presentation, "Computing the Future of Biomedicine," had a very large turnout, with more than 90 Senate and Congressional Staffers, NIH, NSF and other funding agencies staff, and Congressmen in attendance.Rush Holt (Rep. New Jersey) followed up Johnson's presentation with a plea for more funding for fundamental research.
SCI Announces the Publication of "The Visualization Handbook"
The SCI Institute announces the publication of "The Visualization Handbook," edited by two of SCI visualization faculty, Prof. Charles D. Hansen and Prof. Christopher R. Johnson. This book brings together top experts in the field of scientific visualization to cover state of the art techniques being applied to current scientific problems. A number of the SCI Institute's faculty, research staff, and Ph.D. students have also contributed to the book including Prof. Stephen G. Parker, Prof. Yarden Livnat, Prof. Mike Kirby, Dr. Gordon Kindlmann, Dr. Xavier Tricoche, Joe Kniss, Milan Ikits, and Dean Brederson. Copies may be purchased on the Elsevier web site.
SCI Annouces Certificate Program for Computational Bioimaging
The SCI Institute announces a new graduate level certificate program for Computational Bioimaging. The creation of this multidisciplinary program, involving four academic departments, was funded by the Program for Computational Functional Imaging and Visualization through the NIH/NLBI Biomedical Information Science and Technology Initiative (BISTI). The certificate is considered similar to a Graduate Minor at other universities. Graduate students in the program take classes and fulfill the degree requirements from their home department, as well as take classes in basic physiology, cell biology, radiology, computational science, and image/signal processing. Beginning at an introductory level appropriate for this program, the courses will culminate in a project course where students work in interdisciplinary teams on projects that better reflect the true nature of research problems in computational imagining. Upon completion, each student will receive the certificate in Computational Bioimaging as well as the MS or Ph.D. degree from their home department.For more details on the Computational Bioimaging certificate program.
SCI Professor Wins Paracel Cyclone Cluster
The SCI Institute is pleased to announce that Professor Mike Kirby, faculty member in both the School of Computing and SCI Institute at the University of Utah, is the winner of two AMD Opteron cluster nodes provided by Paracel, Inc*. Paracel, a leading provider of applied high-performance computing systems, offered this two-node Paracel Cyclone* Linux cluster as part of a contest on LinuxHPC.org. Professor Kirby's current research interests are in the development and implementation of computational algorithms for solving problems in computational fluid dynamics, solid mechanics and electromagnetics.
Dr. Johnson Gives Frontiers of Science Lecture
Dr. Chris Johnson presented a lecture entitled "Computing the Future of Biomedicine" as part of the University of Utah College of Science's Frontiers of Science Lecture series on March 10. In it he discussed the direction of research in Scientific Computing for medicine and some of the great research going on at SCI. The lecture was held at the Aline Wilmot Skaggs Biology Building.
First Year ESP Recipients Walk at Graduation
Pictured here are three of our first year scholarship recipients of the Undergraduate Engineering Scholars Program who walked at graduation this May. Darby J Van Uitert, Scott Little, and Rebecca Bott received their degrees from the University of Utah College of Engineering in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Bioengineering respectively.Established in 1999 by Chris Johnson and the College of Engineering, the Engineering Scholars Program is a scholarship opportunity for incoming freshmen interested in aspects of engineering and computer science. The quest of the ESP is to leverage the exciting engineering-based research at the University by exposing the first year students to actual research activities. The addition of a research component to the first year student's experience allows the student to see over the horizon offered by prerequisite courses. By giving the first year student a more in-depth look into engineering we propose to increase the enthusiasm level of the students with the result being significantly improved retention rates. Higher retention rates translate into a larger and better-trained graduating class of much-needed engineers and computer scientists.
These students are the best and brightest with an average GPA of 3.96 and an average ACT score of 31. Now in its fourth year, the number of scholarship recipients has increased from nine in 1999 to fifteen in 2002.
Steve Parker Accepts Computerworld Honors
The SCI Institute was recognized April 6th in San Francisco City Hall when it received the Computerworld Honors Medal of Achievement. The award is presented annually to men and women around the world who have made outstanding progress for society through the visionary use of information technology. Nominated by Robert Bishop of SGI for the development of the real time ray tracer, Steve Parker attended the black tie affair and accepted the medal on behalf of the Institute. Dr. Parker is the creator and principle developer of the real time ray tracer. The Star-ray interactive ray tracing system employs a novel approach for generating images of detailed scientific data, allowing users to understand large datasets that overwhelm traditional methods. With increased fidelity rendering, Star-ray can provide interactive exploration of medical, scientific and engineering datasets composed of gigabytes to hundreds of gigabytes of data.Star-Ray is licensed and distributed through Visual Influence inc.
Chris Johnson Receives Distinguished Professor Award
SCI Institute Director Chris Johnson was recently promoted to the rank of Distinguished Professor of Computer Science. Professor Johnson's research through the years has focused on biomedical computing, visualization, inverse problems and problem solving environments. It is his continuing goal to use his work in scientific computing to create new techniques, tools, and systems, to solve problems affecting various aspects of human life.
SCI Institute Plays Role In Governor's State of the State
Natalie was diagnosed with a brain tumor when she was two years old. Natalie's neurosurgeon knew they had to operate. Natalie's father, John Wright, and neurosurgeon, Dr. Jack Walker called upon the SCI Institute to provide an alternative to conventional technology. Combining years of experience with special techniques in data processing and scientific visualization, Dave Weinstein, Gordon Kindlmann, and Dr. Christopher Johnson created a useful visualization of Natalie's tumor.
SCIRun 1.2.0 Released
The SCI Institute proudly releases SCIRun version 1.2.0. In direct response to feedback from program users and collaborators, this version contains several new features. New Features of SCIRun v1.2.0
- Dynamic Compilation and Loading
- PETSc SLES support
- Disjoint package builds
- Improved Documentation