This months stories

EDUCAUSE, Internet2 Offer Fall 2013 E-Content Pilot To Help Colleges Nationwide

Courseload, CourseSmart, McGraw-Hill Education and Over 50 Publishers Involved EDUCAUSE and Internet2 have announced that Courseload, CourseSmart, McGraw-Hill Education and more than 50 publishers are participating in a pilot in Fall 2013 to further provide campuses nationwide an opportunity to explore, evaluate, and advance the transition from traditional media models, including textbooks, to electronic platforms. Colleges and universities interested in participating should attend a webinar at 3 p.m. Monday, March 4, must apply by March 8 and submit their signed contract by April 30, 2013. The fall 2013 pilot is the latest in a series of efforts. Like its predecessors, the pilots have two principal goals: To continue to advance the higher education community’s understanding of online materials and what…

NSF awards Peter Seiler CAREER program grant

Minnesota Supercomputing Institute (MSI) PI Peter Seiler (Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics) has received an award through the NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. The grant award is called “Probabilistic Tools for High Reliability Monitoring and Control of Wind Farms.” According to the NSF website, the CAREER program rewards junior faculty who “exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.” Professor Seiler is using MSI resources to develop algorithms designed to maximize the power of wind farms and reduce the structural loads on turbines. Rather than concentrating on maximizing the power of each individual wind turbine, this project studies the wind farm…

MGHPCC Receives $4.54 Million Grant from MLSC for SuperComputer System for Life Sciences Research

The Massachusetts Green HighPerformance Computing Center (MGHPCC) has received a $4.54 million grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) for a supercomputer system to be used for research in the life sciences. The grant ensures a strong life sciences program at the MGHPCC, which is operated by Boston University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts. Developed with financial support from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Cisco and EMC, the MGHPCC was conceived to support research by university faculty across all scientific disciplines and encourage collaboration among the participating institutions. The new MLSC-funded system, called the Commonwealth Computational Cloud for Data Driven Biology, will be dedicated to enhancing life sciences research through large-scale…

FAROS Project Presents New Technologies for Fishing Management

The presentation of these and other tools designed to minimize the capture of non-target species will take place on Friday morning March 1 in Santiago. Develop technologies in order to help the fleet minimize the discards in the fishing industry. The Supercomputing Center of Galicia (CESGA) and its partners in the FAROS project will present technologies designed to optimize the management of fish discards and tools to minimize the capture of non-target species. It will take place tomorrow in Santiago, at the headquarters of CESGA.Researchers and technicians involved in this European initiative will utilize the BeOS system, high-tech vision applied to fishing vessels; Red Boxes system for the transmission of data from ships to ports, and finally the Geoportal of…

Nature's phenomena might teach Virginia Tech engineers new tricks

The Virginia Tech researchers will also look at the drinking in carnivorous animals, specifically cats and dogs, and incorporate fluid dynamics in their studies.

Lizards and frogs are about to take up residence in the laboratories of Virginia Tech's College of Engineering. The engineers and scientists want to learn more about the water-running lizard's ability to dart across a water surface. In engineering terms, that means how it increases its locomotion efficiency by producing more force on its power stroke and less drag on its recovery stroke. And these engineers are surprised at how some frog species can jump out of the water, starting from a submerged position, using only one power stroke, to catch a flying insect that may be some 40 centimeters -- or three times its body length -- above the surface. As problem-solvers, they want to understand how this small…