When it comes to research, there are big things happening in the College of Computing, and the College of Computing is making big things happen at Georgia Tech.

“Every school year begins with opportunity, and this year there are a lot of opportunities… the College is filled—quite literally—with more potential than at any point in our history,” says Dean Zvi Galil.

Whether you’ve been away for the summer or are here for the first time, read on about the newest research efforts that put Georgia Tech squarely at the intersection of what’s next.

Intel Parallel Computing Center Opens

Intel chose the School of Computational Science & Engineering as the home for its “Intel® Parallel Computing Center on Big Data in Biosciences and Public Health” (Intel® PCC), effective July 1.

Rapid analysis of such large-scale data is critically important to modern genomics. Advances would allow for massive parallel sequencing of DNA at a low cost, leading to big data sets that are useful in even routine investigations by small research laboratories. The Intel® PCC on Big Data in Biosciences and Public Health will focus on developing and optimizing parallel algorithms and software for high-throughput DNA sequencing data and gene expression data. This is currently an area underserved by high performance computing, but has great economic potential and societal importance.

The Intel® PCC at Georgia Tech is led by Professor Srinivas Aluru, who pioneered the development of parallel methods in computational genomics and systems biology. The work will lead to open-source software optimized for Intel® Xeon® processors and Intel® Xeon Phi™ coprocessors with the potential to impact fields such as viral and microbial genomics, agricultural biotechnology, and precision medicine. The center receives $400,000 in funding over a period of two years from Intel. 

Cyber security broadens its reach

The long successful GTISC lab is poised to become the next “interdisciplinary research institute” (IRI) – a new gateway to all cyber security research underway at Georgia Tech. Formally launching in October, it will become the “Institute for Information Security & Privacy” co-directed by Wenke Lee in the School of Computer Science and Bo Rotoloni from GTRI’s Cyber Technology and Information Security Lab. Students can attend weekly lectures by faculty or visiting professionals, participate in “demo days” of their work, and meet venture capitalists for advice about how to commercialize cyber security research. Qualified students from any College can participate in research projects, while faculty seeking interdisciplinary collaboration can turn to the IRI for support preparing a grant proposal or broadening a project.

New Centers Forming

Computer Science professor Tom Conte is leading a national charge, called “Rebooting Computing” and preparing to launch a new research center at Georgia Tech dedicated to just that. And new faculty member Sonia Chernova brings a new robotics lab with her from Massachusetts, called RAIL: “Robot Autonomy and Interactive Learning” lab.

Meanwhile, the new academic year could bring another IRI – in 2016 – for data science, which has been expertly led over the past year by Aluru and by Dana Randall from the School of Computer Science. Watch for more details about all three and more.

Welcome back, College of Computing.