Published: Wednesday, March 10, 2010

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No store-bought tomatoes can compare with sweet, juicy, still-warm-from-the-sun heirloom varieties found at midsummer farmers’ markets.

Foodie pleasures aside, can consuming locally grown fruits and vegetables and locally raised meat lead to better health and help to combat obesity? Does buying food grown neaby help the local economy by keeping family farms viable as North Carolina transitions away tobacco farming? Does ‘buy local’ equate with ‘go green’ because fewer fossil fuels and pesticides are needed to move food from the fields to the dinner table?

Published: Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Hurricane Floyd

Nothing communicates the effects of a natural disaster quite like personal stories: the recounting of an 80-year-old man and his dog who survived Hurricane Hazel by hiding in a freezer; the image of a lone sailor perched atop the wreckage of his ship in the aftermath of the San Ciriaco Hurricane (1899).

Published: Friday, February 12, 2010

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Over the past three years, RENCI has evolved into a statewide organization that spans six North Carolina campuses and affiliated institutes and 27 facilities in seven regions across the state.

Published: Thursday, January 21, 2010

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Registration is now open for the Fifth International Symposium on Computational Wind Engineering (CWE2010) to be held at the Friday Center for Continuing Education in Chapel Hill May 23-27.

Scientists, academics, technologists, architects and engineers from around the world are encouraged to register by March 1 to take advantage of the early bird discount. Students pay an even smaller registration fee and the National Science Foundation will reimburse some expenses for students attending U.S. institutions. For registration details and an online registration form, see http://www.cwe2010.org/registration.html

Published: Thursday, January 21, 2010

chat-festival

Participants in CHAT (Collaborations: Humanities, Arts & Technology), a digital arts and humanities festival Feb. 16-20, will take part in interactive projects that explore the impact of technology on our lives.

Performances featuring technology also will be part of CHAT, hosted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and coordinated by its Institute for the Arts and Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Published: Friday, January 8, 2010

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CHAPEL HILL, NC, January 8, 2010—New participants in Carolina Launch Pad will move into office space within the next few weeks as the pre-commercial incubator located at RENCI begins its second year.

Published: Tuesday, December 22, 2009

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CHAPEL HILL, NC–The computer simulations created by Dinesh Manocha, Ming Lin and their graduate students in the UNC Chapel Hill computer science department display data with realism and creativity.
But until recently, their interfaces to the simulations—mouse, Joybox game controller and haptic feedback—were nothing out of the ordinary. That changed when Manocha, Matthew Mason Distinguished Professor of computer science, and Lin, Beverly Long Distinguished Professor of computer science discovered RENCI’s multi-touch visualization table.

Published: Monday, December 21, 2009


Asheville, N.C. – Ever wanted to predict the future? Researchers at UNC Asheville and UNC Charlotte, as part of an ongoing Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) project, are learning how to do just that. Using historical satellite imagery, development trends, population data and population projections, they’ve been able to design an Urban Growth Model that can generate a visual representation of what our landscape may look like in the near future.

Published: Monday, December 7, 2009

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Stan Ahalt, director of the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), has been elected to a second term as chair of the Coalition for Academic Scientific Computation (CASC).

Published: Friday, November 13, 2009

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Watch entire video or click on any question below:

Q: What attracted you to the job of RENCI director?

Q: You were director of the Ohio Supercomputer Center for six years. How does RENCI differ from OSC? In what ways is it similar?

Q: What do you see as RENCI’s greatest strengths?

Q: On the flip side, you are taking over as director after the center has seen a significant budget cut and in during the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression. What are the challenges facing RENCI in this economic climate?

Q: What do you hope to accomplish in your first year at RENCI?

Q: You’ve played many roles in your career, from teacher and mentor to administrator and leader of successful research initiatives. What excites you at this stage of your career?

Q: Do you have any advice for young people who are students or just starting their careers in high performance computing or related fields?