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Renaissance Computing Institute

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Renaissance Bistro

Overview
The Renaissance Bistro is an information lecture series designed to introduce RENCI to the general public and spotlight RENCI’s areas of service and research development. Topics include discussions about high performance computing, disaster research, economic development, biological sciences, social sciences and humanities. The events are free and each session will be held at a different location throughout the state of North Carolina.

The first Renaissance Bistro events were held at North Carolina State University (NCSU) and North Carolina A & T. Over 25 people attended each event to hear Charles Schmitt, manager of biosciences, and other RENCI experts discuss RENCI projects in bioinformatics and computational biology. Attendees were introduced to RENCI’s North Carolina Bioportal, a shared, extensible bioinformatics web portal for biology researchers, educators, and students. They also learned about cutting edge computational computing tools that are being developed to support the Bioportal.

The next series of Bistros were about RENCI disaster research efforts. These events were held at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill, where RENCI experts Jessica Proud, meteorologist, and Jennifer Shelton, training manger, discussed RENCI’s disaster research and introduced NC-FIRST, RENCI’s new program designed to help emergency managers decipher weather data, understand weather threats and choose actions that minimize threats to lives and property caused by extreme weather. Other topics covered in the bistros included discussions about hurricane and storm surge prediction and disaster planning and mitigation; how climate change can affect the weather and natural disasters; and the National Hurricane Center’s role in warning the public of a tropical threat.

The most recent Renaissance Bistro events, held at UNC Chapel Hill, NCSU, and Duke University, focused on the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute Visual History Archive (VHA). The VHA is a video archive of testimonials from Holocaust survivors and witnesses offered through the USC Shoah Foundation Institute. The archive includes nearly 52,000 video testimonies of Holocaust survivors, witnesses and liberators collected in 32 languages and from 56 countries. RENCI experts explained how to use the VHA for personal and professional research.

The next Renaissance Bistro will be held at RENCI’s Engagement Center at UNC Chapel Hill and focus on new media technology and RENCI’s multidisciplinary research efforts. RENCI’s experts, Eric Knisley, 3D visualization researcher, and Josh Coyle, new media specialist, will give an overview and demonstration of new media from the perspective of 3D imagery and digital technology to flat panel plasma touchscreens. Attendees will observe a brief demonstration of the Showcase Dome, a state-of-the-art research environment with a 15-foot tilted multi-projector dome display for interacting with data in an immersive 180-degree field of view.

Upcoming Renaissance Bistro
Thursday, June 26
12p.m.. – 1 p.m.
RENCI at UNC Chapel Hill
ITS Manning Building
211 Manning Drive, Chapel Hill, NC
Topic: New media: RENCI’s efforts in digital technology and visualization
RSVP by June 9 to
Directions: http://www.renci.org/about/unc.php

2008 Presentations
February 27, March 18, May 1: Shoah Foundation Institute’s Visual History Archive

2007 Presentations
September 12, 27: Hurricanes and Disaster Response Research lecture
June 27: How climate change can affect the weather and natural disasters.
February 21: RENCI Bioportal and bioinformatics research lecture
April 2: RENCI Bioportal and bioinformatics research lecture.

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Renaissance Computing Institute | 100 Europa Drive Suite 540 | Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27517
phone: 919-445-9640 | fax: 919-445-9669 | For questions contact