The Shodor Computational Science Institute

A. Results of Prior Support

ASC-9018011, Grant to University of Illinois. From 1989 - 1990, Dr. Panoff served on the staff of the NSF-funded study on the Role of High-Performance Computing and Communication in Education with Dr. Nora Sabelli, under a subcontract from the University of Illinois. The principle result of this study was a report to the NSF recommending specific directions in funding and development for HPCC technologies to make a significant impact in K-12, college, and postgraduate education. It became clear from this study that further development of the computational component of any individual area of scientific inquiry would require a fully interdisciplinary match between application (the science), algorithm (the mathematical formulation and specification of a model), and architecture (the details of implementation in a particular computing environment).

USE-9154298, Grant to MCNC, $181,879 for 1992-1994. Carolinas Summer Institute in Computational Science, under the Undergraduate Faculty Enhancement program. This three-year project, designed and directed by Dr. Panoff, undertook the training of interdisciplinary teams of three faculty from the same school drawn from the mathematics, computer science, and physical and life science disciplines to do computational science while they also learn how to teach computational science. Drs. Warner and Stevenson served as consultants and instructors in the summer institute. Dr. Hirst was a graduate of the first workshop and was invited to serve as an instructor for the second. In 1992, six faculty teams two from historically black universities and four from predominantly undergraduate institutions in North and South Carolina were brought to MCNC for the first institute. The VTC CONCERT network was used to keep the participants in touch and to provide further faculty development through the year. This regional program grew to include an experimental operation at two sites (MCNC and UNCC) in 1993 connected by CONCERT training an additional 10 interdisciplinary teams. Demand for entry into the program significantly outstripped the available resources. Participating faculty reported that they incorporated directly many of the examples and projects that were covered in the institute, and that the interdisciplinary approach is being carried back to their home institutions. Some schools have leveraged their participation to secure funds for computational resources or improved campus networking. As a direct result of the desire of the participating faculty to further the ends of the Carolinas Institute when MCNC modified its education and outreach missions, the Shodor Foundation was incorporated in 1994. Since then Shodor staff and graduates of their workshops have won numerous national awards for their work in computational science education. These materials are maintained on a server at http://www.shodor.org and are used in many classes across the country.

[ BACK | CONTENTS | FORWARD ]