A recently implemented Commission on the Future of the University initiative aims to change the way faculty and graduate students use digital technology, said Michael McPherson, associate vice president and deputy chief information officer.
High-end visualizations of computational data are transforming disciplines, McPherson said. Astronomers can use observational data to simulate the appearance of a black hole or an exploding star. Although computational science holds huge possibilities for subjects like astronomy, biology and engineering, few outside of the computer science field know how to use it, said Prof. Andrew Grimshaw, head of the University Alliance for Computational Science and Engineering, one of two divisions set up by the new Commission initiative.
“This is not new technology,” Grimshaw said. “The ability to do this stuff has been around since the mid-90s. Our goal is to change the culture of computation at U.Va.”
McPherson said computational science could be similarly helpful in atmospheric science because it could make predicting the weather easier by simulating the entire atmosphere.
The problem with most scientific simulation or analysis programs, however, is that they can require days or even months to run on a single computer. Grimshaw said his job is to make these programs go faster.
To do this, UVACSE created a “tiger team program” of graduate students and professors to help out faculty in other departments, Grimshaw noted. He said his teams helped Asst. Electrical and Computer Engineering Prof. Avik Ghosh run his programs 60 times faster than before.
In addition to the so-called tiger teams, Grimshaw said he is focused on educating graduate students and faculty about the program. UVACSE is now holding classes, town hall meetings and even “computational boot camps.”
Assoc. Religious Studies Prof. David Germano, meanwhile, is directing the other half of the Commission initiative, called the Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts Network of Technological Initiatives. He said this initiative focuses on the humanities instead of the more computationally intensive projects aided by UVACSE.
SHANTI will build on previous successful collaborations between technology and the humanities, like the Valley of the Shadow digital archive of Civil War records, Germano noted. Another recent SHANTI initiative digitized the audio of several William Faulkner lectures at the University, making them available on the Internet.
Germano said SHANTI also is “focused on community and will use digital technology to let people embrace innovation.” The SHANTI Web site itself will be “kind of like a social networking site for faculty,” Germano said. The plan is to let faculty and graduate students see what technological tools others are using, and who in other departments is doing similar research.
The program’s Web site will include a section in which undergraduates will be able to look for internships and research opportunities, Germano said. Additionally, both Grimshaw and Germano said they hope certain projects will eventually trickle down to undergraduates through new teaching techniques acquired by professors.
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