HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – On April 7, 2011, Marshall University will host a one-day conference to showcase state-of-the-art computing technologies available to researchers at the university and across the region.
The free Cyberinfrastructure Day (CI Day) program will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the university’s Memorial Student Center on the Huntington campus, Room BE5. Faculty, staff and students from any field and all higher education institutions are encouraged to attend. Members of the high-tech business community, representatives of government agencies, technology providers and other interested parties are welcome.
According to Dr. Tony Szwilski, director of Marshall’s Center for Environmental, Geotechnical and Applied Sciences and chairman of the CI Day planning committee, the term cyberinfrastructure is commonly used to refer to computational systems, data and information management, visualization environments and people—all linked together by collaborative software and advanced networks.
He said the goal of CI Day is to help researchers—at Marshall and elsewhere—understand the potential of technology and supercomputing to enhance research, teaching and research funding.
“In short, cyberinfrastructure makes possible scholarly innovation and discoveries that were not possible even a decade ago,” he said. “By making targeted investments in our cyberinfrastructure and visualization capabilities, Marshall University now has computing power that was, until recently, available only at the most prestigious research institutions. We hope the CI Day program will make more people aware of the benefits this technology can offer their scholarship and work.”
Szwilski said the program will feature state and national leaders who will speak about the current state and the future of cyberinfrastructure. There also will be presentations from faculty members who are already taking advantage of the university’s technological resources to advance research and research collaborations, win grant funding and enhance students’ classroom experiences.
He added that attendees will have the opportunity to showcase their own research in a poster session during the evening reception that will close out the program.
Marshall’s CI Day is made possible through a National Science Foundation grant that funds “Cyberinfrastructure for Transformational Scientific Discovery in West Virginia and Arkansas (CI-TRAIN),” a partnership among eight higher education institutions in West Virginia and Arkansas.
The CI Day event is free, but advance registration is requested.
To register online or for more information about CI Day, including a full agenda and speaker information, visitwww.marshall.edu/ciday.
Contact: Ginny Painter, Communications Director, Marshall University Research Corporation, 304.746.1964