Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Warnock Engineering Building, University of Utah.tif|Warnock Engineering Building, University of Utah|250px|left]] The SCI research group was founded in 1994 by Drs. '''[http://www.sci.utah.edu/people/crj.html Chris Johnson]''' and '''[http://www.sci.utah.edu/people/macleod.html Rob MacLeod]''' along with five graduate students. In 1996, we became the Center for Scientific Computing and Imaging and in 2000, the SCI Institute. '''[http://www.sci.utah.edu The Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute]''' is now one of eight permanent research institutes at the [http://www.utah.edu/ University of Utah] and home to nearlyover 200 faculty, students, and staff. The 15 tenure-track faculty are drawn primarily from the School of Computing, Department of Bioengineering, and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and virtually all faculty have adjunct appointments in other, largely medical, departments. Recent growth in the SCI Institute has come in part from the award in 2007 from the state of Utah of a USTAR ([http://business.utah.gov/programs/science-advisor/wired/WIRED-Partners/ustarinitiative/ Utah Science and Technology Advanced Research]) cluster in Imaging Technology. This allowed the Institute to recruit fournewthree new faculty in image analysis: Professors [http://www.sci.utah.edu/people/gerig.html Guido Gerig], [http://www.sci.utah.edu/people/fletcher.html Tom Fletcher], [http://www.sci.utah.edu/people/tolga.html Tolga Tasdizen]. During this same time period, andwe were also able to recruit Professor [http://www.sci.utah.edu/people/orlypascucci.html OrlyValerio AlterPascucci] in visualization. DuringIn this2011, sameUSTAR timefunding period,allowed wetwo weremore: also[http://www.sci.utah.edu/people/orly.html ableOrly toAlter] recruitwho Professorspecializes in genomic signal processing and [http://www.sci.utah.edu/people/pascuccimiriah.html ValerioMiriah PascucciMeyer], inwho's novel biological visualization andtools Professorare Julianarevolutionizing Freirethe inway scientificscientists dataview managementand understand their data.

Over the past decade, the SCI Institute has established itself as an internationally recognized leader in visualization, scientific computing, and image analysis applied to a broad range of application domains. The overarching research objective is to conduct application-driven research in the creation of new scientific computing techniques, tools, and systems. An important application focus of the Institute continues to be biomedicine, however, SCI Institute researchers also address challenging computational problems in a variety of application domains such as manufacturing, defense, and energy. SCI Institute research interests generally fall into differentthe areas of: scientific visualization, scientific computing and numerics, image processing and analysis, and scientific software environments. SCI Institute researchers also apply many of the above computational techniques within their own particular scientific and engineering sub-specialties, such as fluid dynamics, biomechanics, electrophysiology, bioelectric fields, parallel computing, inverse problems, and neuroimaging.

A particular hallmark of SCI Institute research is the development of innovative and robust software packages, including the [http://www.sci.utah.edu/software/scirun.html SCIRun scientific problem solving environment], [http://www.sci.utah.edu/software/seg3d.html Seg3D], [http://www.sci.utah.edu/software/imagevis3d.html ImageVis3D], [http://www.sci.utah.edu/software/vistrails.html VisTrails], and [http://www.sci.utah.edu/software/map3d.html map3d]. All these packages are broadly available to the scientific community under open source licensing and supported by web pages, documentation, and users groups.

The SCI Institute either directs or is associated with several national research centers: the [http://www.sci.utah.edu/cibc NIH Center for Integrative Biomedical Computing (CIBC)], the [http://sdav.sci.utah.edu/ DoE Scalable Data Management, Analysis, and Visualization (SDAV)], the [http://www.na-mic.org/ NIH National Alliance for Medical Image Computing (NA-MIC)], the DoE Scientific Data Management Center, the NIH Center for Computational Biology, and the [http://csafe.sci.utah.edu/ DoE Center for the Simulation of Accidental Fires and Explosions (C-SAFE)]. In July, 2008, SCI was chosen as one of three [http://www.sci.utah.edu/nvidia-coe.html NVIDIA Centers of Excellence] in the U.S. (University of Illinois and Harvard University are the other two NVIDIA Centers).

The academic programs available for students are outstanding. The School of Computing has collaborated with faculty in the SCI Institute to create a graduate degree in Computing, which offers tracks in Scientific Computing and Graphics (Image Analysis is planned). The physical infrastructure is also outstanding with many large-scale computing facilities at the disposal of students and trainees, perhaps most exciting is the new NVIDIA computing cluster, which, along with a new graduate course in Parallel Programming for GPUs, provides opportunities for developing unique expertise in large-scale streaming architectures. SCI faculty also provide leadership in developing educational and research tracks in biomedical engineering through the BioengineeeingBioengineering Department. There are undergraduate and graduate tracks in computing and imaging, in part created and directed by SCI faculty. There is also a graduate track in cardiac electrophysiology and biophysics, directed by SCI faculty and supported through collaboration between SCI and the [http://www.cvrti.utah.edu/ Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute (CVRTI)].

A particular hallmark of SCI Institute research is the development of innovative and robust software packages, including the SCIRun scientific problem solving environment, Seg3D, ImageVis3D, VisTrails, and map3d. All these packages are broadly available to the scientific community under open source licensing and supported by web pages, documentation, and users groups.

Perhaps most encouraging is the general atmosphere provided by the SCI Institute and its more than 200 members, all dedicated to some aspect of scientific computing. There is extensive expertise within the SCI Institute that covers all the topics required for simulation, modeling, and visualization including high performance computing, efficient numerical algorithms, large data management and storage, database management, and scientific visualization of all forms of scalar, vector, tensor, and volume data.

The academic programs available for students are outstanding. The School of Computing has collaborated with faculty in the SCI Institute to create a graduate degree in Computing, which offers tracks in Scientific Computing and Graphics (Image Analysis is planned). The physical infrastructure is also outstanding with many large-scale computing facilities at the disposal of students and trainees, perhaps most exciting is the new NVIDIA computing cluster, which, along with a new graduate course in Parallel Programming for GPUs, provides opportunities for developing unique expertise in large-scale streaming architectures. SCI faculty also provide leadership in developing educational and research tracks in biomedical engineering through the Bioengineeeing Department. There are undergraduate and graduate tracks in computing and imaging, in part created and directed by SCI faculty. There is also a graduate track in cardiac electrophysiology and biophysics, directed by SCI faculty and supported through collaboration between SCI and the [http://www.cvrti.utah.edu/ Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute (CVRTI)].

== Associated research centers ==