News

December 2023 Maintenance
On Wednesday, December 6, 2023, MSI staff will perform scheduled maintenance and upgrades to various MSI systems. MSI’s storage, compute clusters, and front-end servers will be unavailable for some portion of the day. Reminder: any SLURM batch job submitted that has a time limit beyond the beginning of maintenance (5 a.m. Wednesday, December 6) will not be queued to start until after maintenance is completed.
Studying Costa Rican Dry Forest
Research by MSI PI Jennifer Powers (professor, Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior) in Costa Rica’s dry forests is featured in a recent article on the website of the College of Biological Sciences. Professor Powers runs field station at the Area de Conservación Guanacaste and received the U of M Award for Global Engagement earlier this year.
Developing Statistical Analysis Methods for Disease Research
Research by MSI PI Thierry Chekouo (assistant professor, Biostatistics and Health Data Science) was recently featured on the U of M News website. Professor Chekouo is developing Bayesian-based statistical learning methods to analyze -omics data. These methods will be made available to other researchers online and will be published in peer-reviewed statistical methods journals. Professor Chekouo uses MSI resources for -omics analysis.
November 2023 Maintenance
On Wednesday, November 1, 2023, MSI staff will perform scheduled maintenance and upgrades to various MSI systems. MSI’s storage, compute clusters, and front-end servers will be unavailable for some portion of the day. Reminder: any SLURM batch job submitted that has a time limit beyond the beginning of maintenance (5 a.m. Wednesday, November 1) will not be queued to start until after maintenance is completed.
Using Biofilms to Extract Minerals
MSI PI Claudia Schmidt-Dannert (director, BioTechnology Institute; professor, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics) is leading a project to develop biofilms that would have the capability to extract metals from mining or electronic waste products. This would be much more sustainable than conventional mining methods.
MSI User Receives 2023 Innovation Impact Case Award
The Office of the Vice President for Research has announced this year’s Innovation Impact Case Award. This award recognizes U of M research that has had significant impact outside of academia. The announcement was released by OVPR earlier this month.
MSI PIs Participating in Project to Discover Brain’s “Wiring Diagram”
The University of Minnesota has been awarded a $16M grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. The goal of the project, which is led by the U of M Medical School, is to find out how the brain’s neurons are connected to each other and how they communicate. The researchers will use advanced MRI and other emerging technologies. Three MSI PIs are involved with this project:
October 2023 Maintenance
On Wednesday, October 4, 2023, MSI staff will perform scheduled maintenance and upgrades to various MSI systems. MSI’s storage, compute clusters, and front-end servers will be unavailable for some portion of the day. Reminder: any SLURM batch job submitted that has a time limit beyond the beginning of maintenance (5 a.m. Wednesday, October 4) will not be queued to start until after maintenance is completed.
Start-up Company Founded by MSI PI Paul Dauenhauer Receives Award
A start-up company co-founded by MSI PI Paul Dauenhauer (professor, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science; Center for Sustainable Polymers) and Dr. Andrew Jones won the grand prize at the MN Cup startup competition. The start-up, Carba, was founded in 2021 and is working on a solution to remove CO2 from the atmosphere by converting plant waste into solid carbon.
MSI PI Fang Li Receives Award From American Academy of Microbiology
MSI PI Fang Li (professor, Pharmacology) will be honored with the Elizabeth O. King Lecturer Award by the American Academy of Microbiology at their June 2024 annual conference in Atlanta. The award is given to researchers who make significant contributions to the field of public health and the discovery of new pathogens. This award recognizes Professor Li’s contributions to research into the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
A Machine-Learning Platform to Understand a Swine Virus
MSI PI Kimberly VanderWaal (associate professor, Veterinary and Population Medicine) is leading a team that has been awarded a $800,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to study various of a swine virus, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus-type 2 (PRRSV-2).
MSI PI Receives $3 Million Grant to Study Complex Pitch Perception
MSI PI Andrew Oxenham (professor, Psychology; director, Auditory Perception and Cognition Laboratory) has received over $3 million from the National Institutes of Health for a project called, “Complex pitch perception in complex environments.” The grant period extends over five years. The project uses behavioral and neuroimaging studies to better understand how we comprehend pitch in music and speech from the information in our ears.
MSI PIs Receive Patents in 2022
The Technology Commercialization office has compiled a list of U of M researchers who were awarded U.S. patents in 2022. Many of these patents were awarded to MSI PIs. Links to the patent documentation and the complete list can be found on the Tech Comm website: Patent Roll Call: 2022.  
Research Computing Funding Opportunities
Research Computing, MSI’s parent organization, has Graduate Assistantships and Seed Grants available for U of M researchers. Overview of RC Finding Opportunities. Graduate Assistantships
September 2023 Maintenance
On Wednesday, September 6, 2023, MSI staff will perform scheduled maintenance and upgrades to various MSI systems. MSI’s storage, compute clusters, and front-end servers will be unavailable for some portion of the day. Reminder: any SLURM batch job submitted that has a time limit beyond the beginning of maintenance (5 a.m. Wednesday, September 6) will not be queued to start until after maintenance is completed.
Biosurveillance to Fight Plant Pathogens
Anyone living in Minnesota over the past decades is familiar with Dutch elm disease and the emerald ash borer, two pathogens that have caused a huge impact on local trees. MSI PI Robert Blanchette (professor, Plant Pathology) and members of his lab are using biosurveillance methods to detect and manage new pathogens before they can spread through the plant population.
A New Topological Semimetal Material May Reduce Energy Consumption in Electronics
In recently published research, three MSI PIs and their colleagues have synthesized a topological semimetal that, while using less energy than current materials, is able to generate more computing power and memory storage. Tony Low (associate professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering), K.
DSI-MnDRIVE PhD Graduate Assistantship Program 2024
Research Computing has opened the application period for the 2024 DSI-MnDRIVE Graduate Assistantship program. This program supports U of M PhD candidates pursuing research at the intersection of data science and any of the five MnDRIVE areas: Robotics; Global Food; Environment; Brain Conditions; and Cancer Clinical Trials.  “Data science” in this case is defined broadly as the collection of approaches and disciplines encompassing the entire data pipeline. Proposals must align with one of the Data Science tracks:
A Material That Can Absorb Nearly All Light
A team led by researchers at the U of M has developed a material that can absorb nearly 100 percent of light. The team includes MSI PIs from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Professor Steven Koester and Associate Professor Tony Low and their colleagues. The research, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, may have applications in optical communications as well as military applications such as stealth technology.
August 2023 Maintenance
On Wednesday, August 2, 2023, MSI staff will perform scheduled maintenance and upgrades to various MSI systems. MSI’s storage, compute clusters, and front-end servers will be unavailable for some portion of the day. Reminder: any SLURM batch job submitted that has a time limit beyond the beginning of maintenance (5 a.m. Wednesday, August 2) will not be queued to start until after maintenance is completed. Software license reservation calendars are again available for the following packages: Imaris, Materials Studio, USEARCH, Graphpad Prism, COMSOL, Abaqus, and Mimics.

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