RIT set to unveil new research center

Mary Stone//September 3, 2004//

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Rochester Institute of Technology’s B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences is slated to unveil a new research center next week.
The Center for Advancing the Study of Cyberinfrastructure is designed to combine multiple disciplines at RIT. Campus officials said the center’s computing equipment and technologies will help advance research in many departments through improved tools and better collaboration.
Initially, the center will be funded with part of a $2 million donation from Xerox Corp. The center will receive approximately $180,000 a year over the next five years from the Xerox grant.
Additional funding will result from the pooling of grant money from various RIT departments that will use the center, which will be housed in the Laboratory for Applied Computing building. Constructed some four years ago, the building will house the center’s high-performance equipment and the offices necessary for its upkeep.
The center itself, however, will operate virtually.
“We leverage work from each laboratory by putting them in the framework of the cyberinfrastructure,” said Jorge Diaz-Herrera, dean of the Golisano College.
“The idea of the cyberinfrastructure is to create computing-enabled tools to help scientists and engineers further their research,” Diaz-Herrera added.
He explained that the center is not designed for computing alone but to improve the research at five of RIT’s eight colleges mainly through improved collaboration and more advanced research tools.
“We are not going to do research in computers for its own sake,” Diaz-Herrera said.
While Diaz-Herrera said it is difficult to anticipate the immediate impact the center will have on Rochester’s business community, he expects the center’s computing power will one day increase the discovery rate of new products and technologies locally.
For this reason, officials chose Digital Rochester’s monthly networking event, held at RIT, to officially announce the center. The event, scheduled for Tuesday, was an ideal opportunity to present the center to Rochester’s high-tech community, Diaz-Herrera said.
Juli Klie, president of Digital Rochester, said in a written statement that “because the base of our membership is high-tech companies, this cyberinfrastructure initiative will directly involve many of our members over time. Spreading the word about the CASCI initiative is an important part of Digital Rochester’s mission to enhance our area’s standing as a technology center.”
The center was conceived a year ago as the Golisano College began formalizing its Ph.D. programs. Currently, the school-founded in July 2001 with a $14 million gift from Paychex Inc. chairman, president and CEO Thomas Golisano-has 3,000 students with five undergraduate degrees and three graduate degrees available.
Last year, after officials had outlined the college’s Ph.D. programs for the consideration of the state Department of Education this year, officials realized that many of the programs included the same principles of the cyberinfrastructure, as they are outlined by the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.
Cyberinfrastructure, as it is defined by the NSF, describes the global information technology environments in which the highest level of computing tools are available to researchers and professionals in all disciplines.
Diaz-Herrera explained that the center will be the cornerstone of the college’s Ph.D. program. He explained that the college already has submitted proposals to organizations such as the NSF for additional funding.
“A lot of proposals have been written and funding is pending,” he added.
In the meantime, the center is operational for the beginning of the academic year, which started Sept. 1.
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