Designed especially for neurobiologists, FluoRender is an interactive tool for multi-channel fluorescence microscopy data visualization and analysis.
Deep brain stimulation
BrainStimulator is a set of networks that are used in SCIRun to perform simulations of brain stimulation such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and magnetic transcranial stimulation (TMS).
Developing software tools for science has always been a central vision of the SCI Institute.

News

cibc kardonCIBC collaborator Gabrielle Kardon's research has been showcased by New York Times science writer Carl Zimmer.

You can read the full article on their website.
Congratulations to Laura Lediaev on winning the 2015 Teapot Rendering Competition. Her stunning image titled Pile of Teapots, was the winner and audience choice award.

This image is not strictly photorealistic. Laura rendered out the image into two main layers, one for specular highlights and caustics, and one for diffuse lighting. She also has a mask for just the teapots, and one for the ground. Laura was able to split up the image and adjust the brightness of each part independently. Here she decided to include some diffuse reflection/refraction for the teapots, but mostly removed the diffuse lighting from the ground. This gave an extra glow to the teapots and also emphasized the caustics. 100,000 samples per pixel.

aimbe rossCongratulations to Ross Whitaker, who has been elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows. The AIMBE College of Fellows represents the most accomplished and distinguished medical and biological engineers responsible for innovation and discovery.
small partINCITE Grants Awarded to 56 Computational Research Projects

Newswise — OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Nov. 16, 2015–The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science announced 56 projects aimed at accelerating discovery and innovation to address some of the world's most challenging scientific questions. The projects will share 5.8 billion core hours on America's two most powerful supercomputers dedicated to open science. The diverse projects will advance knowledge in critical areas ranging from sustainable energy technologies to next-generation materials.

cool science radioValerio Pascucci, Professor, from the School of Computing and Alessandra Angelucci, Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Science featured on KCPW and Cool Science Radio.

You can listen to the podcast here.
butson groupOver $10 Million in grants from three federal organizations have been awarded to Christopher R. Butson, PhD, associate professor of bioengineering and a member of the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute (SCI). He also holds positions in the departments of neurology and neurosurgery and is the Director of Neuromodulation Research for the Department of Neurosurgery and works with teams of researchers at the University of Utah and other institutions in the U.S. and Germany.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded funds for a clinical study on central thalamic deep brain stimulation for traumatic brain injury. This clinical study is led by Butson and other teams including Nicholas Schiff M.D. at Cornell University, Joseph Giacino Ph.D. at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, Jaimie Henderson M.D. at Stanford and Andre Machado M.D. at the Cleveland Clinic. These teams are working on a feasibility study to support a next generation device to provide therapy for the survivors of severe to moderate traumatic brain injury.

orly groupOrly Alter has been awarded a five-year, three million-dollar National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant for the project "Multi-Tensor Decompositions for Personalized Cancer Diagnostics and Prognostics." Co-investigators on her team include pathology professors Cheryl A. Palmer and Carl T. Wittwer, associate professor Elke A. Jarboe, and clinical assistant professor Reha M. Toydemir, and neurosurgery professor Randy L. Jensen.

Alter, a bioengineering associate professor and a faculty member of the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, pioneered the matrix and tensor modeling of large-scale molecular biological data, which have been demonstrated to correctly predict previously unknown cellular mechanisms.

For more see the project website at https://physics.cancer.gov/network/UniversityofUtah.aspx.

Interactive software tool lets brain researchers explore large-scale, high-res imaging to better understand connections in the brain

October 26, 2015

It's tough to unravel the mysteries of the brain when your computer is frozen.

To aid frustrated brain researchers, a multidisciplinary team of scientists at the University of Utah has created a faster method for generating and exploring high-resolution, 3-D images of the brain.

Oct. 22, 2015

The animal brain is so complex, it would take a supercomputer and vast amounts of data to create a detailed 3-D model of the billions of neurons that power it.

But computer scientists and a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Utah have developed software that maps out a monkey's brain and more easily creates a 3-D model, providing a more complete picture of how the brain is wired. Their process was announced this week at Neuroscience 2015, the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago.

Press Release 15-107

Gigabit application prototypes to help cities and communities serve citizens better

NSF awards nearly $12 million to expand innovation ecosystem for next-generation Internet applications

us ignite googlecover3 f
NSF announced nearly $12 million awards that build on the successful efforts of US Ignite.
Credit and Larger Version
September 14, 2015

The United States lags behind most developed countries in terms of high-speed Internet availability. Though there are signs this is changing, insufficient investment in gigabit networks--those capable of 1,000 megabits per second, roughly 30 times faster than the networks commonly available today--threatens to limit U.S. leadership in Internet applications and services.

IMAGEVIS3DThe U's Center for Integrative Biomedical Computing just landed a $6.1 million grant renewal from the National Institutes of Health. The center produces open-source software for image-based modeling, simulation and visualization of biomedical data. Tens of thousands of scientists have downloaded the center's software tools and data sets, and more than 200 papers published by scientists outside the center reference its software or computing infrastructure.

The NIH grant has a five year term. The principle investigators are bioengineering professor Rob MacLeod, computer science professor Ross Whitaker, and computer science professor Christopher Johnson, who directs the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute.

From @theU