Founded in 2004, the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) is a major collaborative venture of faculty, staff and students at Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill along with the state of North Carolina and communities across North Carolina. Because we span the three major Triangle area campuses and operate engagement centers at other North Carolina campuses, we can draw on the expertise of diverse research faculty to build collaborations that address both practical problems that affect the state and broad scientific problems.
RENCI brings to these collaborations its own nationally significant competencies and capabilities in high performance computing technologies, including parallel computing, visualization, collaborative tools, software engineering, networking, and data systems. In the broadest sense, we work to leverage all these technical and human capabilities to solve important problems and make North Carolina a national leader in innovative research that can bolster economic vitality.
RENCI Mission Statement
The Renaissance Computing Institute, a multi-institutional organization, brings together multidisciplinary experts and advanced technological capabilities to address pressing research issues and to find solutions to complex problems that affect the quality of life in North Carolina, our nation and the world.
What we do, how we do it
Since 2004, many RENCI effort have focused on helping the state of North Carolina use visualization, collaboration tools and advanced technologies to plan for and mitigate disasters. We have also launched projects that use advanced technology to improve medical diagnostics and assist biomedical researchers. We continue to build collaborations with university-based research teams on projects that give North Carolina a stronger foothold in large-scale research projects. Over time, our focus areas might change, but our basic mode of operation will continue to be as follows:
- We bring advanced technology capabilities and expertise to our collaborations and aim to be the “glue” or “the missing piece” that propels ideas and projects to new levels of discovery and new sources of funding.
- We build partnerships to tackle large, multifaceted issues that impact all North Carolinians, including disaster response and preparedness, healthcare, and environmental quality.
- We use our ingenuity and talent to develop software tools, technologies and hardware to support research projects and state initiatives.
- We catalyze innovation by giving people in research, business, government and the arts a place where they can investigate new ideas and approaches, push the limits of technology, and share their vision with collaborators who span many fields and backgrounds.
- We leverage our work with our collaborators to reach out to broader audiences, such as K-12 schools, undergraduates, and minority serving institutions.
