News Archive

To help prepare the next generation of supercomputing researchers, the Blue Waters project offers paid internships to undergraduate students across the country. Applications are now being accepted for internships that begin May 2017. Interns participate in a two-week hands-on workshop in late May 2017 introducing them to the basics of high-performance computing. After the workshop, … Continued

“Blue Waters adds this whole new dimension to the research that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible.” That’s how Joshua Mendez described his yearlong experience as a 2016 fellow in the Blue Waters Graduate Fellowship Program, a prestigious and unique program funded by the National Science Foundation. As part of this program, several graduate students from … Continued

Urban areas can have a tremendous impact on atmospheric conditions. Blue Waters Graduate Fellow Larissa Reames is working to understand how the shape of a city plays a role in extreme weather events. Many things go into consideration when planning a city layout, roads, transportation needs, location relative to natural features. However, one thing has … Continued

Dr. Gabrielle Allen, founding leader of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)’s Research and Education (R&E) directorate and professor of Astronomy, has been named Associate Dean for Research and Research Education at the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Allen, who is a professor in the department of astronomy, will … Continued

Today, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced $10 million in “Big Data Spokes” awards to initiate research in specific areas identified, supported, and organized by the Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs (BD Hubs). $2.4 million in Big Data Spoke, Early­ Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) and planning awards will connect the Midwest Big Data … Continued

The Blue Waters Graduate Fellowship was awarded to ten outstanding Ph.D. students in computational science. In this series we’re featuring brief introductions to who they are and what they’re trying to accomplish. This program serves to prepare the next generation of science researchers to solve the world’s problems. Follow along as we highlight these young … Continued

by Susan Szuch Who would have thought that a method that enabled the automatic firing of anti-aircraft guns in World War II would be applicable over 70 years later? This time, though, instead of protecting London’s citizens from German warplanes, it’s creating antibodies to protect humans from infectious viruses. Even the method of viral infection … Continued

The Blue Waters Graduate Fellowship was awarded to ten outstanding Ph.D. students in computational science. In this series we’re featuring brief introductions to who they are and what they’re trying to accomplish. This program serves to prepare the next generation of science researchers to solve the world’s problems. Follow along as we highlight these young … Continued

Assistant professor Kaiyu Guan’s work builds off his previous research with satellite and earth system modeling. Prior to coming to Illinois, his PhD and postdoc work focused mostly on how rainfall and other components of the hydrological cycle control plant growth in tropical forests, savannas and farms. He used some brand new capabilities of satellites … Continued

The Blue Waters Graduate Fellowship was awarded to ten outstanding Ph.D. students in computational science. In this series we’re featuring brief introductions to who they are and what they’re trying to accomplish. This program serves to prepare the next generation of science researchers to solve the world’s problems. Follow along as we highlight these young … Continued

The Blue Waters Graduate Fellowships hosted by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a year-long opportunity for Ph.D. students around the country to gain valuable experience with supercomputing and the chance to perform research on the fastest supercomputer on a university campus anywhere in the world. … Continued

by Austin Keating The first ever Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) Summit taking place in New York this week has one major goal—to craft open data-driven solutions in the face of rising world hunger. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s plant biology department are … Continued

by Hannah Remmert (story) and Austin Keating (video) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers, Professor Wendy K. Tam Cho and Yan Y. Liu recently won 1st place in the Common Cause 2016 First Amendment Gerrymander Standard Writing Competition with their proposal of a novel method for identifying partisan gerrymandering, which they created using the Blue … Continued

Larry Smarr, Founding Director of NCSA, will give a talk titled “50 Years of Supercomputing: From Colliding Black Holes to Dynamic Microbiomes to the Exascale” at 10 a.m. in the NCSA Auditorium on September 16. The talk, which will stream live and is open to the public, is part of NCSA’s 30th Anniversary Celebration. Smarr … Continued

by Hannah Remmert Most of us in the United States likely feel safe from Ebola—West Africa feels like it’s worlds away. We’re located very far geographically from the countries with the highest frequency of infections, like Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, and many of us aren’t likely to be traveling to those places any time … Continued

Donna Cox, Director of NCSA’s Advanced Visualization Laboratory (AVL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will give a talk titled, “The Unofficial History of Visualization” at 11:30 a.m. on September 15 at NCSA in the auditorium. The talk, which will stream live and is open to the public, is part of NCSA’s 30th Anniversary … Continued