ISU students participate in National Science Foundation cyberinfrastructure program

Four Idaho State University geosciences students have been selected from a nationwide pool of applicants to participate in a cyberinfrastructure program through the National Science Foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research or EPSCoR.

The students are Peter Olsoy, who is working on a master’s degree in geographic information science at the Boise Center Aerospace Laboratory;  graduate students Carlos Murillo and Adam Koster; and undergraduate Stephen Joy.

The program will give them hands-on experience with supercomputers, high-performance computing and other advanced data management and networking services.  Supercomputers are able to store vast amounts of information and perform calculations used in quantum physics, climate research, oil and gas exploration, molecular modeling and physical simulations. The students will receive online training through regularly scheduled web seminars.

In February, they attended a seminar at South Carolina’s Clemson University where they engaged in projects with 80 other program participants. The ISU students were the only students from Idaho.

In November, the ISU group will travel to SC12, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking and Storage Analysis, in Salt Lake City.

Olsoy says a cyberinfrastructure system can help ISU enhance research goals and assist researchers in connecting to the global community.