October 16, 1997
Media Contacts: Warren R. Froelich, (619) 534-8564, [email protected]
Ann Redelfs, (619) 534-5032, [email protected]
WIDELY DIVERSE PROJECTS AT UCSD WILL BENEFIT FROM $2.4 MILLION INTEL GIFT
A dozen widely diverse research and instructional projects-spanning the arts, humanities and social sciences to engineering, natural sciences and environmental studies-will benefit from a new $2.4 million gift of computing equipment and other resources from Intel Corp. to the University of California, San Diego.
Each of the projects selected for funding by Intel requires sophisticated computer technology to foster new discoveries and a sharing of knowledge among students, faculty and researchers here and elsewhere.
"This generous gift of equipment from Intel will help expand the range of uses and users of advanced computer technology on this campus in both research and instruction across a wide range of disciplines important to UCSD's mission," said Chancellor Robert Dynes. "It recognizes and builds on the fine programs UCSD has developed in these areas."
Selected projects include computationally demanding applications such as biological and biomedical modeling, human cognition, global climate modeling, structural engineering, international business and diplomatic relations, high-performance databases, video storage and retrieval and agent-based computing.
Part of the funds to UCSD will be used to create a shared laboratory facility on campus that will be used by thousands of students to augment classroom studies, to test and use software, and to train systems support staff, faculty and graduate students.
All projects will involve the Windows NT Operating System environment or the translation of UNIX-based software to NT. Intel expects that the UCSD gift, along with grants to a dozen other campuses nationwide, will challenge the capabilities of its equipment and provide insights into how to improve it.
"Intel technology development is generating increasing excitement on campus," said Sid Karin, director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the UCSD-led National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure, a five-year program funded by the National Science Foundation to revolutionize computational capabilities available to the nation's scientists and engineers.
Aside from advancing cutting-edge research in science and non-science disciplines, several projects are expected to create new approaches to classroom and distance learning.
The gift, for example, will help support a new major-the Interdisciplinary Computing-in-the-Arts major-designed to prepare the next generation of artists to develop new fields for media computing, including digital film editing and film network distribution.
A second project builds on the successful Multimedia Interactive Learning Lab (MILL) in which students are offered a multimedia learning environment that frees them from constraints of traditional instructor-centered teaching. Through interactive instruction, for example, students can experience the inner workings of a laboratory and its equipment virtually without being in the lab. New equipment from the Intel gift is expected to increase the speed of key applications, particularly those involving 3-D modeling software-important for such areas as the biological modeling of molecules and how they interact with their surroundings.
Yet another project, proposed by UCSD cognitive scientists, seeks to create new learning environments based on multimedia technologies combined with new theories of cognition and new ideas about human/computer interaction.
The dozen UCSD projects selected by Intel target long-time users of computer technology, and relative newcomers to the world of high-performance computing. For example, the Intel gift will:
*Aid in the creation of a high-speed network called CRCAnet (pronounced "circa") that will handle the flow of information needed to support real-time, high-resolution arts and music applications. As envisioned, CRCAnet will transform how the arts community works with multimedia in research projects, performances, classroom presentations, library services and advanced studies in the arts and humanities.
*Assist in the rapid growth of multidisciplinary projects in computational biology, particularly in those areas involving modeling and visualization of proteins, enzymes and other molecules important for gene therapy, drug design and the human genome project.
*Encourage international cooperation via the Internet and the analysis of international financial transaction exchanges through simulations.
*Foster the exploration and study of global climate change through computer models and high-speed networks. Intel's gift will also go toward KidSat, which allows middle school students to command a digital camera on-board NASA's space shuttle from their classroom, taking photographs of the Earth for use in their curriculum. These images are relayed to the ground while the shuttle is in orbit and made available immediately via the Web. KidSat, still in its pilot phase, has a goal of expanding its scope to hundreds of schools before the turn of the century. This involves enhancing and expanding the computing and networking infrastructure, and developing and disseminating advanced educational tools and visualizations electronically.
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