National Campaign Launched to Recruit Fellows to Understand How Software Can Help Research

University of Southampton (United Kingdom) (08/23/12)

The United Kingdom's Software Sustainability Institute recently started recruiting researchers to take part in its new Fellows program to develop a better understanding of the way that software is used in research. The Software Sustainability Institute is a team of experts from the universities of Edinburgh, Manchester, Oxford, and Southampton who are committed to cultivating world-class research through software. The institute team is seeking about 15 new Fellows who are based in a wide range of research areas that rely on software in science, technology, digital humanities, engineering, and social sciences. "The Software Sustainability Institute was set up in 2010 to help researchers use and develop software that is reliable, well engineered, and can be re-used by different disciplines in and outside their research programs," says the institute's Simon Hettrick. The launch event, which takes place on Sept. 10, will be an opportunity for prospective applicants to learn more about the Fellow program, network with similar-minded researchers, meet people from the institute, and learn how software can better influence research.

http://www.southampton.ac.uk/mediacentre/news/2012/aug/12_146.shtml

Log Onto Facebook, Contribute to Scientific Research

Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) (02/09/12)

Researchers at Victoria University of Wellington, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and Cardiff University are developing a cloud computing-based Facebook application that enables users to donate their computing resources to scientific projects. Victoria researcher Kris Bubendorfer says integrating cloud architecture with an existing social network such as Facebook has advantages over other options, such as commercial cloud services, which some research teams use on a pay-as-you-go basis and can be very expensive. "If we can recruit even one percent of current Facebook users to become volunteers, that will have a significant impact on resources available for research," Bubendorfer says. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology researchers are developing rewards and incentives that will encourage Facebook users to sign on for volunteer computing while Cardiff University researchers are developing a business model to support the initiative. "Social networks offer an easy and quick way for scientists to find each other and agree to share resources for the duration of a project," Bubendorfer says.

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New Global Portal for Cyber-Physical Systems Research Launched

Vanderbilt University (04/14/11) Brenda Ellis 

Vanderbilt University's Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS) recently launched the Cyber-Physical Systems Virtual Organization (CPS-VO), a U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)-backed portal designed to unite researchers, educators, and students. CPS-VO is part of a larger NSF project called Virtual Organization for Cyber-Physical Research (VOCYPHER). Cyber-physical systems are smart technologies that combine the physical world with computerized environments. They have a variety of scientific applications, including aerospace research, civil engineering, and medicine. CPS-VO wants to connect basic researchers with the potential to solve problems to those in the field that need solutions, says VOCYPHER's Chris vanBuskirk. CPS-VO enables researchers to post problems, publish results, perform online experiments, and exchange ideas. The goal is to find out "who's out there working on techniques that can be applied to the really grand challenges of our age," vanBuskirk says. ISIS researchers are currently working on several CPS-related projects, including ways to normalize the types of conveyance used in military vehicles, and networking technologies that will help medical devices interact in hospitals.

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'IPad Deconstructed' Forum Makes Case for Federal Research

Computerworld (09/22/11) Patrick Thibodeau

Federally supported research sparks game-changing innovation, according to a U.S. Capitol forum on the future of federal research moderated by Carnegie Mellon University professor Luis von Ahn. He says in an interview that the forum used the iPad as an example, as most of its components came from federally supported research. Von Ahn argues against a Senate proposal to cut the budget of science research funding, saying that a reduction could hurt the sustainability of U.S. technological leadership. He notes that private tech companies cannot do research on their own, as they have a priority to deliver commercial products in the short term. However, federal research projects take a long-term view and are borne out of the pursuit of basic questions. "If you look at lot of the game-changers [new technologies] over the last few years, it's not because someone was trying to solve a specific problem, it was just because somebody was trying to understand something better," von Ahn says.
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