April 19, 2010 –
A program to train scientists to better manage vast, complex datasets, and a center that will transform human mobility through information technology and robotics, have been selected as the first recipients of the Large-Scale Interdisciplinary Research Ignition Initiative sponsored by CALIT2, The Henry Samueli School of Engineering and the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences.
The funding program, announced last December, aims to promote interdisciplinary research that will evolve into large-scale, agency-funded projects or centers in the areas of health, energy, environment, information, communications or digital technologies.
The selection committee, comprised of deans Debra Richardson and Rafael Bras, and CALIT2 Irvine director G.P. Li, chose the iScience project and iMove Center based on their multidisciplinary nature, likelihood of attracting significant funding from outside agencies, innovation, scientific value and long-term impact.
iScience seeks to address the escalating volume of data collected by natural scientists, who increasingly are stymied by the sheer size of the datasets. Data-driven computing faces challenges in storing and managing these large, complex distributed and dynamic data collections, and needs radically new tool sets and visualization schemes to effectively explore, mine, understand and extract new knowledge from the information.
Project PI Magda El Zarki (information and computer science) and co-PI Crista Lopes (informatics) propose a program to educate students, along with their faculty, across disciplines to create a new crop of scientists who are knowledgeable in the basic concepts of natural and computational sciences.
The iMove Center, led by co-PIs David Reinkensmeyer (mechanical and aerospace engineering, and biomedical engineering), Steve Cramer (neurology), Mark Bachman (electrical engineering and computer science) and Walt Scacchi (information and computer science) will search for ways to use information technology, robotics and neuro-regenerative therapies, including dance, sport and computer games, to improve human mobility and challenge patients beyond what is possible with current rehabilitation models.
Researchers hope to help shape new brain circuits and assess movement recovery with novel electrophysiological, functional imaging and behavioral outcome measures. The center also seeks to produce technologies useful to those without disabilities, including innovative, interactive training and performance technologies for sport and dance.
Each winning project will receive grants totaling $40,000: $20,000 now and $20,000 when a proposal is submitted to an outside agency requesting a minimum of $500,000 per year for at least 3 years. Additional calls for proposals for the initiative will occur in October 2010 and February 2011.
“We are pleased to be a part of this new multidisciplinary initiative that will ultimately benefit society,” said CALIT2’s Li, “and we look forward to the long-term success of our first two recipient projects.”
— Anna Lynn Spitzer
