News

MSI Researchers Receive NSF-PFI Grant
 
MSI PI Honored by Popular Science
 
Itasca Expansion
MSI is augmenting the capabilities of Itasca with an addition of 51 Intel SandyBridge nodes. The expansion includes 39 nodes with 16 cores per node, 64 GB of memory, and a 146 GB hard drive. There are also eight nodes with 128 GB of memory and 8 nodes with 256 GB of memory. The higher-memory nodes will also include larger local disk drives of 600 GB each. The larger memory and large local disk nodes target users with greater demands of per-core of node memory and also users who need large local scratch drives.
MSI Researchers Collaborate on Corn Genomics
posted September 5, 2012 Two MSI Principal Investigators in the Department of Plant Biology, Peter Tiffin and Nathan Springer, appear in a recent article on the College of Biological Sciences website. The article discusses Professors Springer and Tiffin’s collaborative genomics research into the domestication of maize.
Diagnosing Epilepsy
 
Biomedical Sensors
  Research by MSI PI Jian-Ping Wang (Electrical and Computer Engineering) is highlighted on the OVPR Business blog. Professor Wang has developed a new biomedical sensor technique that uses magnetic nanoparticles and a sensor incorporating giant magnetoresistance. The Wang group uses MSI resources for their calculations related to research into magnetization.  
Glucose Monitoring
  MSI PI Steven Koester is highlighted in a recent OVPR Research blog article. Professor Koester is working on a new kind of glucose monitor that uses graphene. A video about this research appears at the bottom of the linked page.  
Recent Patents
  MSI Principal Investigators Randall Victora (MSI Fellow; Electrical and Computer Engineering) and Art Erdman (Mechanical Engineering) were among University faculty who were awarded patents during the past quarter.  
Blue Waters Call for Proposals
The Great Lakes Consortium for Petascale Computation (GLCPC) has issued a call for proposals for allocations on the Blue Waters High-Performance Computing System. Please see the GLCPC website for details on the call for proposals. Note that only principal investigators affiliated with an institutional member of the GLCPC are eligible to submit a proposal. The University of Minnesota / Minnesota Supercomputing Institute is a member institution. The deadline to submit a proposal is October 31, 2012.
Computational Papyrology
 
I-35W Bridge Monitoring
 
Minnesota Mississippi Metagenome Project
  UMNews has profiled MSI Principal Investigator Michael Sadowsky in a recent story about the Minnesota Mississippi Metagenome Project. This project, which uses MSI resources, studies the microorganisms that live in the Mississippi River. The research team is investigating the differences in the microbes along the course of the river and how human activity affects them. 
Genomics Applications at the U
Kenneth Beckmann, Director of the U’s Biomedical Genomics Center (BMGC), was interviewed recently on the OVPR Business blog. MSI is developing web applications for the BMGC.  
Cataloging Trees in New Guinea
posted July 27, 2012 George Weiblen, a curator at the Bell Museum of Natural History, is profiled on the OVPR’s Research blog. Dr. Weiblen and his team are identifying trees in 100 acres of New Guinea rain forest. MSI is currently working with Dr. Weiblen on a project to digitize collections at the Bell Museum.   
student visit to MSI
Student Visit to MSI
On June 27, two students visited MSI to learn about the MSI and the supercomputers. AJ (Alec) Olson and Jake Grisim, who are visually impaired, were given a tour of MSI by Yectli Huerta, HPC Systems Administrator, and Eric Badger, Student Technical Support Lead. AJ attends St. Croix Preparatory Academy and Jake attends Shakopee Middle School. Jake and AJ visited the machine room, where they learned about supercomputers and were able to touch and inspect various pieces of equipment.
Genomics of Grains
posted June 26, 2012
Data-Storage Case Study
  The Active Archive Alliance has released a case study about MSI’s Spectra Logic file archive system. The case study can be found on the linked page under the "University of Minnesota" header.   
2012 Minnesota Futures Grant Winners
 
Wheat Rust Genomics
MSI PI Les Szabo (Plant Pathology) was interviewed on June 11 on Minnesota Public Radio's Daily Circuit program. He discussed his work with wheat rust, a common and devastating disease of wheat caused by the Puccinia graminis pathogen. Professor Szabo is using MSI to study the genomics of a variant of this pathogen, Ug99, which is highly virulent and against which most wheat does not have resistance.  
Agriculture and the Environment
 

Categories

Archive