REU Site: Educating for the grand challenges at the intersection of biocomplexity and high-performance computing

这项授予密苏里州哥伦比亚市密苏里大学(MU)的REU Site奖将支持2014-2016年夏季为期9周的12名学生的培训。该奖项由生物科学理事会(生物基础设施部)和数学和物理科学部(数学科学部)共同支持。一对来自计算科学和另一对来自生命科学的学生研究人员将在高性能计算和大数据生物学的界面上合作。学生们将从一组不同的研究项目中进行选择，其中包括来自计算和生命科学五个系的导师。例子项目包括开发并行计算方法，以便能够识别在哺乳动物胎盘形成起源等重要进化转变中发生的基因复制，并使用并行计算机和图形处理单元利用来自高通量测序的数据推断植物生命树。此外，参与者还将参加其他校园暑期研究项目--参加专业发展课程、负责任地开展研究工作的培训，以及参加每周一次的并行计算和生物学课程。参与者将从不同的院校招募，来自少数族裔服务机构和仅限本科生的学院的学生优先考虑。PI和研究导师将选择参与者(一半来自计算领域，一半来自生命科学领域)，并帮助他们选择计算或生物伴侣。参与者的进步将通过涵盖该计划技术材料的前后测试进行评估。该计划将使用NSF的通用评估工具进行评估。计算，特别是并行计算，将对未来的科学和工程至关重要，因为来自下一代DNA测序仪等仪器的数据量不断增加，产生了海量数据。REU网站提供的培训和研究经验将为参与者提供在这一重要领域接受培训的独特机会。学生在项目结束后被要求跟踪，并必须回复通过NSF报告系统发送的自动电子邮件。欲了解更多信息，请访问http://muii.missouri.edu/reu_bigdata，，或联系国际和平组织(Gavin Conant博士；conantg@misSouri.edu)或共同国际组织(徐志仁博士；shyuc@misSouri.edu)。

This REU Site award to the University of Missouri (MU), located in Columbia, MO, will support the training of 12 students for 9 weeks during the summers of 2014-2016. This award is supported by both the Directorates for Biological Sciences (Division of Biological Infrastructure) and Mathematical and Physical Sciences (Division of Mathematical Sciences). Pairs of student researchers, one from the computational sciences and the other from the life sciences, will work collaboratively at the interface of high performance computing and big data biology. Students will select from a diverse group of research projects, with a choice of mentors from five departments in the computational and life sciences. Example projects include developing parallel computing approaches to allow the identification of gene duplications that occurred with important evolutionary transitions such as the origins of mammalian placentation and using parallel computers and GPUs to infer the plant tree of life with data from high-throughput sequencing. In addition, participants will join other campus summer research programs -- attending professional development sessions, training in the responsible conduct of research, and participating in weekly sessions on parallel computing and biology. Participants will be recruited from a variety of institutions, with preference given to students from minority-serving institutions and undergraduate-only colleges. The PIs and research mentors will select the participants (half from the computational and half from the life sciences) and help them choose a computational or biological partner. Participants' progress will be assessed with pre- and post-tests covering the program's technical material. The program will be evaluated using NSF's common assessment tool.Computation, and especially parallel computation, will be vital to science and engineering in the future, as increasing data volumes from instruments such as next-generation DNA sequencers generate enormous amount of data. The training and research experience offered at this REU site will give the participants unique opportunities to be trained in this important area.Students are required to be tracked after the program and must respond to an automatic email sent via the NSF reporting system. More information is available by visiting http://muii.missouri.edu/reu_bigdata, or by contacting the PI (Dr. Gavin Conant; conantg@missouri.edu) or the co-PI (Dr. Chi-Ren Shyu; shyuc@missouri.edu).