Talk about speed; the staff at the new Center for Computational Science (CCS) can perform trillions of calculations per second as part of their effort to help researchers solve complex, real-world problems.
Tucked away in a garage at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine campus, the center is a state-of-the-art facility that blends computer power, applied mathematics and application sciences. The CCS links multiple computers to crunch complex data. For now, it is focusing on five areas: physical sciences and engineering, computational biology and bioinformatics, chemistry, data mining and visualization. The center, established in 2007, is involved in research projects on three UM campuses.
To inaugurate the center, a lecture series launched Friday afternoon at the Storer Auditorium in the School of Business. The talk was given by Daniel A. Reed, Microsoft’s scalable and multicore computing strategist who is responsible for re-envisioning the data center of the future.
“Computing is a universal intellectual amplifier which allows us to expand our memory and our ability to reason about complex events,” Reed said.
He explained that this technology helps to understand the behavior of weather and interact with friends, family and associates.
“In the modern world, in order to do science and engineering, you need to use computational methods and that they are a vital component of research and education in the new millennium,” said Nick Tsinoremas, the director of the CCS.
Tsinoremas said that since the center opened, his staff has been involved in about 85 collaborations with several schools at UM, including Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Medical, and the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
He also said that there have been 400 people, the majority of them students, who have used the facility. Several attended Reed’s lecture last week.
Aravind Prakash, a graduate student studying computer science, said, “[Reed] is an extremely knowledgeable speaker and a person who has been through the time line of computing.”
“He has also played an active role in its evolution,” Prakash said.
Another grad student, Steven Trac, added, “I am graduating this semester and I wish that I could be around to actually use the new technology that [Reed] talked about.”
To learn more about the Center for Computational Science, please visit www.ccs.miami.edu.