Russ Miller
UB Distinguished Professor

Dept of Computer Science & Engineering
State University of New York at Buffalo

2001 Media Coverage

1. Dr. Russ Miller was Director of CCR during this period.
2. Dr. Russ Miller co-Founded the New York State/Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics (and Life Sciences) in 2001.

• December media coverage of the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics, co-founded by Dr. Miller.
  • December 31: UB's supercomputers and the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics are mentioned the article "Battle of the budgets puts city and its schools in peril". This article appears on the front page of the Buffalo News.
  • December 31: The UB's supercomputers and the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics are mentioned under "bioinformatics possibilities" in the article "A squeeze, but no disaster, in local industry". The article appears in the Buffalo News.
  • December 30: The article "Who won, who lost in 2001" mentions UB's Supercomputers and the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics. The article appears in the Buffalo News.
  • December 24: The article "Medical campus in focus: Long-hyped plans gain momentum" describes development plans for the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, the location for the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics. This article appears on the front page of the Buffalo News.
  • December 24: The article "Business community leads charge for bio-center" mentions that the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics will utilize UB's supercomputers for medical research and new products. The article appears in Buffalo Business First.
  • December 24: The article "Cooperation key, say medical campus planners" mentions that the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics will utilize UB's supercomputers for analysis of humane genome data. The article appears in Buffalo Business First.
  • December 19: UB's supercomputers will empower the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics, the topic of the article "Biotech viewed as job creator". This front page article appears in the Buffalo News.
  • December 19: New York State Senator Mary Lou Rath's article "State recognizes Buffalo is future of medical world" refers to UB's supercomputers utilized by the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics. Senator Rath's column appears in The Amherst Bee.
  • December 17: UB's supercomputers will be used by the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics, the topic of the article "Bio-center's long-term potential could propel economy". The article appears in Buffalo Business First.
  • December 7: UB's supercomputing will provide computational support to the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics. The article "$207 million venture aids area's tech future" details Governor Pataki's announcement. This front page article appears in the Buffalo News.
  • December 7: The article "What's bioinformatics? A primer on the science" mentions UB's Center for Computational Research. This article appears in the Buffalo News.
  • December 6: UB's supercomputers will analyze human genome data for Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics, the topic of the article "Pataki announces $200 million Bioinformatics center for Buffalo". The article appears in Buffalo Business First.
• December 5: The Center for Computational Research is mentioned in the article "UB Adds Biophotonics to Grant Roster." This article appears in The Spectrum, Volume 51, Number 39.
• December 1: CCR activities are highlighted in "Beyond the Walls - the Biennial Report of the University of Buffalo, 1999 - 2001". The report describes CCR's cooperative role with the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute in forming a new department of structural biology in the Medical School (page 10). It mentions that both of these institutions are collaborating with Roswell Park Cancer Institute to plan the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics (page 22). UB"s Virtual Reality Lab and CCR are involved with the private sector, IBC Digital, in the new Peace Bridge design (page 18). CCR will provide virtual reality prototyping and real-time simulations for academic and corporate research (page 23).

• November 30: The article "2001-2002 Dean's Council" mentions that resources at the CCR are used to help UB professors acquire grants. This article appears in the newsletter of UB's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the "SEAS News", Fall 2001, Vol.7, No. 2, page 2.
• November 30: An intensive workshop for high school students in scientific visualization and virtual reality that is cosponsored by CCR is described in the article "High schoolers discover possibilities of VR in Workshop". This article appears in the newsletter of UB's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the "SEAS News", Fall 2001, Vol.7, No. 2, page 5.
• November 30: UB's supercomputing facility is mentioned in the article "House OKs $3 million for high-tech center." This article appears in the Buffalo News. The article states that Rep. Tom Reynolds said that the university's supercomputer center makes the campus the logical place for this (bioinformatics) research.
• November 28: Russ Miller and CCR staff member Adam Koniak, describe how high performance computing and visualization can be utilized in many disciplines in the Spectrum article, "Liberal Arts Degree Far From Obsolete"
• November 28: UB's supercomputing facility is mentioned in the article "UB proceeds on biotechnology center" This article appears on page B-1 of the Buffalo News. The article states that the bioinformatics center, which is built upon the success of the Center for Computational Research could propel the city into the field of gene-based drugs and medical products and that it would build on an existing talent base at UB's medical school, Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute. Further, backers of the plan envision a building in the city's medical corridor for the bioinformatics research with links to the UB Supercomputing Center (CCR) on the North Campus. The article discusses possibilities of start-up companies and benefits to the local economy.
• November 19: The article "'Last mile' lapse puts future on hold" mentions UB's supercomputing facility. This article appears on front page of the Buffalo News.
• November 18: UB's supercomputing center is cited as a potential advantage for regional industry in the article "UB's research engine remains a dynamo yet to be harnessed." This article appears on page A-10 of the Buffalo News. In the article, Dr. Russ Miller states that a number of local companies are pursuing partnerships with the Center for Computational Research and that currently about 10% of the compute cycles in CCR are being used by local industry, which is quite significant considering the incredible power available through the supercomputers at CCR.
• November 15: The article "UB to offer master's degrees in bioinformatics" highlights the three professional master's degree programs to be funded by a grant from the Sloan Foundation. UB's supercomputing facility will provide computational support to these new programs. This article appears on page A-1 of the Buffalo News.
• November 15: The article "Sloan funds new master's programs" mentions collaboration with the Center for Computational Research. This article appears in The Reporter, Volume 33, Number 11.
• The article "Cool creator: Passion for computers and art leads to boutique technology firm" mentions collaborative visualization projects with UB's Center for Computational Research. This article appears in UB Today, Fall 2001 issue, pages 32-33.
• November 3: UB's Center for Computational Research is mentioned in the article "Conference at UB highlights ideas for future machines." This article appears on pages A-6, A-9 of the Buffalo News where it mentions that computer models generated by UB's Center for Computational Research allowed viewers to see alternatives to the Peace Bridge from different angles.
• November 1: The article "Avatars, EVL and ghosts: Media study project offers thrilling spin in virtual reality " highlights UB's participation in EVL: Alive on the Grid. CCR was UB's site for this shared virtual reality environment. This article appears in The Reporter. The article states that Josepine Anstey will demonstrate "Alive on the Grid" a VR installation developed by digital artisits throughout the world, at the UB digital summit. At UB, the site of interaction was the portable ImmersaDesk, a one-wall, virtual-reality environment in the Center for Computational Research (CCR). For the digital summit, Anstey and her team will produce a local, stand-alone, version of "Alive on the Grid" that will be exhibited on the ImmersaDesk in the Center for the Arts Atrium. It will demonstrate how participants can engage in real-time interactions in virtual space from several campus locations.

• October 25: The high-performance computational support given by UB's supercomputing facility is featured in the article "CCR is key resource for researchers." The article cites that the Center for Computational Research has helped attract $40 million in external funding. This article appears in The Reporter, Volume 33, Number 8. The article leads off with mentioning that completing his post-doctoral work at Princeton University, Jeffrey Errington considered returning to his native Western New York, and that CCR was one of the reasons that he was able to come back to Buffalo and carry on his research in collaboration with the world-class supercomputing center. Errington said that "one of the very nice things about CCR, especially for new assistant professors who have very few funds when they are starting out, is that there is this resource right on campus that's completely available to faculty and completely free." The article goes on to state that for new and existing faculty researchers at UB, having CCR on campus is more than a perk; it is an increasingly critical resource that is helping to propel major projects. Supercomputing has made major inroads in a broad range of projects at UB, helping to garner about $40 million in external funding for UB faculty members. As Errington's case proves, quite a few UB department heads have found it's also playing a role in faculty recruitment. In fact, Maurizio Trevisan, professor and chair of the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine and interim dean of the School of Health Related Professions, discovered that this summer while recruiting for a biostatistician. "The fact that CCR is here was very important to me," he said. "Being able to send candidates over there and have them talk with the center's staff scientists really helped. Any institution that wants to be in the forefront of research has to have something like CCR." The article continues with numerous similar stories about the importance of CCR in terms of science, engineering, scholarship, and recruiting top-notch faculty and students to the Buffalo area. The article includes references to the work of Carl Lund, John Cowell, Josephine Anstey, Charles Weeks, Paras Prasad, Yaoqi Zhou, Cyrus Madnia, Sam Paley, and others. Many of their projects are described in broad strokes.
• October 1: UB's high-performance supercomputing facility is featured in the article "CCR Involves Students in Cutting-Edge Research." This article appears in The Spectrum, Volume 51, Number 14. The article first describes the location and mission of the Center for Computational Research, one of the top 10 academic supercomputing facilities in the United States. It also mentions that CCR gives students the opportunity to work with faculty members on leading-edge research projects requiring high-performance computers and high-end visualization resources. Dr. Russ Miller comments that "students utilizing CCR's resources will gain experience on state-of-the-art computing platforms including the latest parallel computing and visualization hardware and software. Access to these facilities will help prepare students for graduate school or employment in a wide variety of fields." The article also mentions that part of CCR's mission is to foster mutually beneficial industrial partnerships by providing access to center resources and to serve as a focal point for technology transfer within UB and the WNY community, and that CCR offers seminars, workshops and courses on high-performance computing, visualization, computer modeling and simulation. The article points out that CCR offers programs for scout troops, gives talks at local elementary, middle and high schools; offers both a two-week summer workshop for high school students and a two-semester course in high-performance computing; and by serves as the core of the certificate program in computational science. Miller also states that "CCR is a leader in the field of cluster computing, a field in which low cost commodity processors are clustered together to create a high-performance parallel computer." The article also describes some projects that CCR either enables or takes a lead role in, including the development of software for modeling groundwater flow at either regional or local scales in order to predict migration of contaminants in groundwater; the development of novel computational techniques to study volcanic plume motion and sedimentation, with implications for volcanic hazards and short-term climate change; and the Peace Bridge visualization project, in which CCR, in collaboration with IBC Digital and Virtual Reality Laboratory at UB, created a real-time 3-D simulation of the proposed replacements for the Peace Bridge and the surrounding toll plazas. The article states that the virtual reality simulations are one of the supercomputer's most fascinating features. Students can don 3-D glasses and view models from the Fakespace Systems ImmersaDesk, a monitor capable of generating mobile images larger than those produced by the average student's computer.

• September 10: The article "Center for Excellence On Time Despite Late State Budget" cites CCR as the main partner to the proposed Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics. This article appears in The Spectrum, Volume 51, Number 5.

• August 31: The editorial "More budget fallout" mentions the application of the power of supercomputers to bioinformatics. This article appears on page C-14 of the Buffalo News.
• August 26: UB's supercomputing capability is mentioned in the editorial "Support runs strong for UB biotech center." This article appears on page B-1 of the Buffalo News.

• July 26: The article "UB creates visualization, VR center high-performance" mentions the high-performance computational support provided by UB's Center for Computational Research, that enables the generation of real-time simulations. This article appears in The Reporter, Volume 32, Number 33.
• July 26: UB's Center for Computational Research is mentioned several times in the article "Students introduced to virtual reality," that features the summer high school workshop. The workshop is cosponsored by CCR. This article appears in The Reporter, Volume 32, Number 33.
• July 17: The editorial "Virtual Reality 101" features the summer high school workshop, cosponsored by CCR. This editorial appears in the Buffalo News.
• July 15: UB's Center for Computational Research is mentioned several times in the article "See it, then build it." The pairing of UB's supercomputing capabilities and the visualization center is cited as providing a rare combination of high-end research tools. This article appears on page B11 of the Buffalo News.
• July 2: This summer's high school workshop is featured in the press release "UB to Hold First High School Workshop in Virtual Reality and Visualization." This workshop is cosponsored by CCR.

• June 23: UB's supercomputing facility is mentioned in the article "Pay as you grow." This editorial appears on the front page of the Buffalo News.
• June 5: The editorial "An opportunity for Buffalo" mentions UB's supercomputing facility. This article appears in the Buffalo News, page B-10.
• June 3-4: Channels 2 (WGRZ), 4 (WIVB) and 7 (WKBW) presented a story on the proposed Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics. Russ Miller, director of UB's supercomputing facility, discussed the new bioinformatics center and high-performance computing. This feature aired at 6:00p (channels 4 and 7) and 11:00p on Sunday, and 6:00 and noon (channels 2 and 7) on Monday.
• June 3: UB's supercomputing facility is mentioned several times in the article "Deal is near on major biotech center". The Center for Computational Research will supply the massive amounts of computer processing power that will be required by the Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics. This article appears on the front page of the Buffalo News. CCR Director Dr. Russ Miller states that he has been talking to local industry and there appears to be significant interest in partnering with the Supercomputing Center on a variety of projects that will be beneficial to the local economy.

• Spring: UB's Center for Computational Research is mentioned in the article "Bioinformatics, Medicine's newest frontier." CCR's computational power is cited as essential. This article appears in UB Today, Spring/Summer 2001 issue, pages 14-17.
• Spring: UB Today has a brief mention of the IBM donation of $640,000 of equipment to UB's Center for Computational Research. This item appears in the Spring/Summer 2001 issue, page 12.
• Spring: CCR is mentioned several times in the article "New Era in Biomedical Sciences." The large-scale computing and visualization capabilities of UB's Center for Computational Research are cited as necessary for tackling the massive computational problems of bioinformatics. This article appears in the Spring 2001 issue of UB Research Quarterly, Volume 11, Number 1.
• Spring: The article "New Era in Information Technology" mentions UB's world class Center for Computational Research in the Editor's note. This article appears in the Spring 2001 issue of UB Research Quarterly, Volume 11, Number 1.

• May 18: The article "Gene research seen aiding drug design," appearing in the Buffalo News mentions: Building on UB's supercomputer center established in 1999, state officials are proposing to invest millions in making the university a bioinformatics hub.
• May 14: The Business First article "Bioinformatics institute gains funding" mentions UB's supercomputer facility.
• May 13: The article entitled "Area's big biotech effort still needs private capital" mentions a upgrade to UB's supercomputing capabilities, that would be part of the proposed bioinformatics institute. This article appears in the Buffalo News, pages B7 and B9.
• May 11: An article appeared in the Buffalo News discusses a virtual reality model of the proposed Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus using computer-generated animation. The project, which will be performed by the Center for Computational Research in cooperation with IBC digital, will cost $107,000. The Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency has already committed $20,000 towards the cost of the project. The results of teh project would allow users to take a virtual tour of the medical complex proposed for High Street for the purposes of urban planning. Backers of the medical campus proposal say the model will be a useful marketing tool. The medical campus concept calls for building on health institutional resources already in the High Street area, including Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Center, Kaleida Health and Buffalo Medical Group.
• May 8: The Buffalo News article "Pataki to boost area at research council in Seattle" mentions UB's high-powered computing capability.
• May 6: UB's supercomputing facility is mentioned the Buffalo News article "Buffalo's research future."
• May 4: The editorial "High-quality jobs for the long term" discusses the STAR Center for Disease Modeling and Therapy Discovery, other high-tech initiatives, and economic growth in WNY. UB's supercomputing facility is mentioned. This editorial appears in the Buffalo News.
• May 1: The proposed Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics is the focus of the front page article "Biocenter hinges on partners," in the Buffalo News.

• April 26: UB's Center for Computational Research is featured in an article in The Reporter entitled "UB showcases CCR in D.C." The article states that it is not typically feasible to get members of Congress to come to campus to witness the quality of research that goes on at UB. Therefore, on Tuesday, CCR led a delegation of UB faculty and administrators to Capitol Hill to interact with our elected officials.. Dr. Russ Miller showed our delegation CCR's "virtual reality machine" in an effort to present some of the world-class research going on at UB. This marked the first-ever "UB Day in Washington," which UB officials plan to make an annual event. Dr. Miller and other members from Buffalo met with Reps. John LaFalce and Jack Quinn, and with staff members from the offices of Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer. They also met with staffers from SUNY and Gov. George Pataki's office. The purpose of the trip was to educate lawmakers about major advances the university has made in the burgeoning field of bioinformatics and to showcase the high-performance computing and visualization capabilities of CCR, which plays a central role for research in the field. CCR already serves as the computational backbone for research under a $25 million National Institutes of Health grant in structural genomics to a consortium of nine institutions, including UB and the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute (HWI). Bioinformatics research projects now under way at CCR include investigations into protein folding, molecular-structure determination, data visualization, bioimaging, pharmacokinetics, and pattern discovery and data mining. In addition to taking a virtual tour of CCR, members of Congress and their staff members had a chance to view molecules virtually using SnB, the software developed by Dr. Miller and scientists at HWI, which allows researchers to solve difficult molecular structures based on X-ray diffraction data. Legislators also had the chance to "walk through" or "fly through" virtual-reality representations of designs that were proposed last spring for the Peace Bridge. The designs were the result of a partnership last spring between CCR, IBC Digital, the Virtual Reality Lab in the UB Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and the Public Bridge Authority.
• April 26: The interview with Jaylan Turkkan, Vice President for Research, in The Reporter mentions UB's supercomputing facility as a place that dignitaries visit and a place that is important to UB's national reputation.
• April 24: The Center for Computational Research gave demonstrations of high-tech visualization in the first UB Day in Washington. The focus of this event was on UB's advances in bioinformatics, and high-end supercomputing and visualization.
• April 23: Russ Miller, Director of CCR, gave a brief interview with Mark Scott on WBFO radio concerning UB Day in Washington, D.C. and the Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics.
• April 5: President Greiner and Vice President Of Student Affairs Dennis Black discussed CCR and the Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics during their recent interview on WBFO. An overview of the interview appears in an article entitled "Greiner, Black Address NCAA Violations on WBFO" in the April 6 issue of The Spectrum.
• April 5: The Buffalo News published an article, entitled "Investing in biotechnology," that discusses the opportunities and possibilities of the Governor's proposed Center of Excellence for Western New York. This article appears on page B8.

• March 28: Russ Miller, Director of the Center for Computational Research, gave an interview to Gabe DiMaio, a producer at WBFO, covering a wide range of topics including CCR's computers, research supported by CCR, the place of high-end computing in history, and the UB's involvement with the WNY community.
• March 25: The Buffalo News article "Area may get research hub," highlights a new Bioinformatics Institute, high speed network, and expansion of UB's supercomputing capabilities, in the creation of the Governor's proposed Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics in Buffalo. The article states that state officials are on the verge of investing millions at the University at Buffalo to build a bioinformatics hub that will be connected to an expanded supercomputer at UB. Further, the article points out that bioinformatics involves using high-speed computers to process massive amounts of biological data with the goal of designing new drugs and treatments. The article notes that cycle time on the supercomputer, the amount of time the computer is working on a specific computation, would serve as the bait to attract private industry. For example, algorithmic calculations which take five months to process on a standard computer can be calculated in one day on UB's supercomputer. "The research divisions of drug companies would have access to machines that are far more powerful than what's currently available to them," according to Russ Miller. If the proposed investments are made, UB would host one of the most powerful supercomputers not owned by the United States government, according to state officials. One practical use might be to have the supercomputer process and store genetic information on why the human body builds up resistance to antibiotics.
• The Buffalo Engineer article "UB Engineers Take Virtual Reality to Washington" describes UB's demonstrations of high-tech visualization at Science Day 2000. This article appears in Special Edition 2000-2001, page 13.
• UB's Advanced-Certificate in Computational Science has approval of SUNY and New York State Education Department. Highlights of this program appear in the Buffalo Engineer article "New Advanced Certificate Program in Computer Science is Given Green Light," Special Edition 2000-2001, page 13.
• The article entitled "Important Genomics Research Will Be Done in Western New York", appearing in the March 2, 2001: Vol. 10, No. 9 issue of HPCWire, The Electronic News Magazine for Supercomputing, mentions: "Shake-and-Bake," the algorithm underpinning a widely-used software package to determine the structure of proteins, was developed by Nobel Laureate Herbert Hauptman, president of HWI and distinguished professor in UB's Department of Structural Biology, and Russ Miller, director of the CCR. "Shake and Bake" was designated one of "The Top Ten Algorithms of the 20th Century" by Computing in Science & Engineering magazine. The software it spawned, also developed at HWI and UB, is used by scientists around the world engaged in protein crystallography for rational drug design.
• HPCWire, The Electronic News Magazine for Supercomputing, presents the news brief, "CCR Installs New "Rack 'Em, Stack 'Em" Supercomp Cluster", in the March 2, 2001: Vol. 10, No. 9 issue.
• UB's supercomputing facility is featured in the article entitled "Virtual Reality at CCR." This article appears in the Campaign Update Newsletter, The Campaign for UB: Generation to Generation, Winter 2000, Vol 1, issue no. 2.

• February 15: UB's Center for Computational Research is one of the highlights in an article in The Reporter entitled "UB Day brings technology to Albany". The thrust of the day was to infuse lawmakers with the same enthusiasm for the university's accomplishments that UB Day participants brought to the capital in terms of technological innovations being developed and supported in Buffalo, in particular, by the Center for Computational Research. Dr. Russ Miller and other members of the Buffalo contingent met with legistators throughout the day. Further, CCR brought several high-end visualization devices in order to demonstrate the advances and capabilities available in Buffalo to the elected officials and their staff. Miller stated that "The focus of the legislative visits was on the many successful research programs already under way (at UB) and how they have a positive impact on both the public and the business communities"
• February 15: UB will provide supercomputing support in a long-term collaboration with the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute. The article in The Reporter entitled "Structural biology department created", discusses the new department and collaboration.
• February 15: UB's supercomputing capabilities are mentioned in the Buffalo News article "UB, institute aligning on structural biology", which details the alliance between UB and the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute in forming a new department of structural biology in the Medical School.
• February 14: The proposed New York State Center for Excellence in Buffalo is featured in the Buffalo News front page article "Seeking to excel". UB's Center for Computational Research is cited as the focal point in the development of the Center of Excellence in Buffalo. In the article, Dr. Russ Miller discusses the opportunities and possibilities of using the world-class Center for Computational Research as a basis for building the proposed Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics.
• February 6: Russ Miller, Director of CCR, gave an interview with Mark Scott on WBFO radio concerning UB Day in Albany and the proposed Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics.
• February 6: UB's Center for Computational Research is mentioned in passing in the Buffalo News front page article "A blueprint for success".
• February 5-6: UB's Center for Computational Research presented a high-technology exhibit at UB Day in Albany. Director Russ Miller, Associate Director Tom Furlani, and Research Assistant Martins Innus met with numerous members and staff of the New York State Assembly and Senate.
• An article entitled "SGI Launches New High-Density Server, Bioinformatics Platform at LinuxWorld" appears in the Feb. 5, 2001, issue of bio1nform, The weekly Global bioinformatics news service. The article mentions the launch of the new SGI 1100 series server and the 150 processor system in CCR constructed of such devices. It also mentions the positive results that CCR has had with the machine in terms of running Shake-and-Bake.
• February 1: UB's Center for Computational Research, a key member of the proposed New York State Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics, will be in Albany on Feb. 6 to participate in UB Day. Highlights of UB Day are discussed in an article in The Reporter entitled "UB advocates are heading to Albany". In the article, Dr. Russ Miller states that it is important to understand the distinguishing intellectual and technological features that are available to enable Buffalo to take a leadership role in the critical fields, such as bioinformatics. In fact, he states that "We have high-end facilities and staff expertise to build upon (and that) these high-end resources are among the best in the world.
• February 1: The Reporter publishes an article entitled "IBM raises CCR power", which highlights IBM's contributions to world-class supercomputing at the Center for Computational Research. The article states that IBM, a partner since day one in the Center for Computational Research (CCR), is positioning UB's supercomputing facility for even greater growth by donating equipment worth more than $640,000. The gift from IBM, brings the total equipment donation from the corporation to the center to just under $2 million. The equipment upgrade, including 14 4-way 375MHz Power3 thin nodes and an 8-way 222MHz Power3 high node, will increase the power of CCR's IBM SP supercomputer almost threefold, while also significantly increasing its storage capacity. Russ Miller said the upgrade will "provide a significant amount of additional computation to our users, particularly those working on large problems in areas that include computational chemistry, biology and fluid dynamics." Further, Miller stated that "The partnership with IBM is important to the success of CCR (as) IBM is a leader in the field of high-end computing."
• February 1: The high-performance SGI Linux cluster installed at UB's Center for Computational Research is featured in an article in The Reporter entitled "SGI adds to CCR's muscle". The article states that an SGI-supplied LINUX supercomputing cluster, which provides high performance at low cost and takes up comparatively little floor space, has been installed in the Center for Computational Research, the only academic beta-test site for the cluster in the world. An SGI executive stated that "The CCR is at the cutting-edge of high-performance computing and we are delighted to be able to augment its existing computing environment with this LINUX cluster solution. The SGI LINUX cluster is the center's most powerful machine, packing 150 Gigaflops-150 billion floating operations per second-versus existing supercomputers, which provide about 64 billion. But for all its power, the cluster, made up of 76 1.75-inch-high processors, each containing 2 Pentium III chips, takes up only about 16 square feet, compared to the 128-processor SGI Origin 2000, which takes up nearly 60 square feet. "This is a rack 'em, stack 'em supercomputer," said Russ Miller, CCR director and professor of computer science and engineering. "It's one-third the size of some of our other supercomputers and three times as powerful. The price of supercomputing is tumbling and we believe that the SGI LINUX cluster is at the forefront of cost-effective supercomputing."
• February 1: The proposed Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics and the Center of Computational Research are mentioned in The Reporter in an article entitled "Faculty urged to trumpet successes".

• January 31: The new cluster at the Center for Computational Research is featured in the SGI press release "SGI Enables Innovation by Delivering Broad Lineup of Linux OS-Based Solutions at Linuxworld 2001".
• January 31: The SGI press release "SGI Cluster for Linux Selected to Support Computational Research at the University at Buffalo" announces the installation of a High-Performance 152 processor Linux cluster.
• January 31: The IBM donation of $640,000 of equipment to UB's Center for Computational Research is highlighted in The Spectrum article "Computer Giant Gives UB Hardware to Aid Faculty, Graduate Student Research", January 31 edition, page 1.
• January 30: The upgrade to the IBM supercomputer, at UB's Center of Computational Research, is featured in the Buffalo News CyberBrief "IBM donates equipment to UB", page D-7.
• January 25: An article appears in the Reporter entitled "Center cashes in on Buffalo's strengths," which discusses the designation of Buffalo for the proposed Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics. CCR and scientific collaborations that provide the foundation for this unique opportunity are highlighted. The article mentions that CCR already serves as the computational backbone for research under a $25 million National Institutes of Health grant in structural genomics to a consortium of nine institutions, including UB and HWI. The article mentions that CCR is one of the top 10 U.S. academic supercomputing centers providing the computing power that is essential for any successful bioinformatics initiative. In fact, Senior Associate Dean Bruce Holm states that "Without CCR, we wouldn't even be in the game" and that there one reason for developing CCR was due to the recognition of how important supercomputing is to both to academic science and to economic development.
• January 22: CCR's testing of the Itanium Chip is mentioned in a brief Business First article entitled "UB Chosen as Test Site for Testing Processor", in the January 22, 2001 edition, page 29.
• Metro Community News, Sunday, January 21, 2001, Amherst/Getzville Edition, page 20, "Pataki presents new technology plan" is a well written article that includes the following well stated paragraph:

  The Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics at Buffalo will, through the University of Buffalo's Center for Computational Research, create academic and industrial partnerships with Roswell Park, Praxair, and Life Technologies among others. The supercomputing capability to decipher the structure of proteins and genes is a critical element of this new industry.

• January 21: The testing of the Intel's newest chip, the 64-bit Itanium microprocessor, by CCR is featured in an article in the Buffalo News article entitled "Searching for Flaws". Dr. Russ Miller states that working closely with vendors on state-of-the-art technology provides unique opportunities to stay at the forefront of the fast-paced and ever changing world of technology. Intel's newest and smartest chip, perhaps the engine of tomorrow's supercomputers, is getting quizzed by researchers at the University at Buffalo. Itanium-based computers are expected to go on the market about mid-year. The first-generation Itanium chips are expected to pave the way for a second, more popular wave of 64-bit processors next year, said Kevin Krewell, a senior analyst at MicroDesign Resources in Sunnyvale, Calif. That processor, code-named McKinley, will run faster and deliver better performance, he said. At UB, Miller and a team of four researchers are feeding computation-intensive problems to a cluster of four Itanium-powered machines -- with a total of eight processors -- running on the Linux operating system. The Shake-and-Bake software package, developed by Miller and colleagues at the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, will be used in an attempt to uncover any logic flaws lurking in Itanium's 10 million-plus transistors, according to Miller.
• January 21: The Buffalo News editorial "A 5-Year Plan for Improving SUNY" highlights the proposed Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics at UB's Center for Computational Research.
• January 19: The Spectrum presents an excellent article entitled "CCR Propels Governor's Technology Center Proposal: UB Included in Five-Year, $283 Million Budget Plan". The article discusses the Governor's proposed Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics, discusses the various partners, including Hauptman-Woodward, Roswell Park, IBM, Veridian, Praxair, ART, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and gives an overview of the expectations and status of the proposal."
• January 18: The Reporter presents an article entitled "Bioinformatics center proposed". The article discusses the Governor's proposal and mentions UB, Roswell Park, Hauptman-Woodward, Praxair, ART, Ethicon, Veridian, and Life Technologies. It also discusses the various units at UB that are expected to participate in this initiative, which according to the Governor's press release would be run "through the University of Buffalo's Center for Computational Research."
• January 16: A front page article entitled "Pataki to press education overhaul" appears in the Buffalo News. The article mentions the Governor's proposed Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics, which includes UB, Hauptman-Woodward, and Roswell Park.
• January 14: An editorial appears in the Buffalo News entitled "Pataki's plans for upstate should be supported." The article mentions the Governor's proposed Center for Excellence at UB.
• January 12: CCR's role as a beta-test site for next wave supercomputing is highlighted in an article on the UB News Web site entitled "University at Buffalo's Center for Computational Research Tests Itanium Processor for Biological Applications.
• January 6: Buffalo News article "Looking Upstate" cites the proposed New York State Center for Excellence in bioinformatics, which will be led by CCR, as key to job growth in Western New York, pages A1,A4.
• January 5: Russ Miller, Director of CCR, gave the presentation "Computers and Careers" to the students of Williamsville East High School for Career Day.
• January 4: Buffalo News article "Pataki Sets Broad Agenda" focuses on Buffalo's developing high-technology research corridor, pages A1,A4.
• January 4: The supercomputers and new high-technology of the Center for Computational Research are featured in an article in the Buffalo News, "Campuses to be supercomputer hubs". The article states that the proposed Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics will leverage the world-class Center for Computational Research and the research in bioinformatics already underway in CCR. Dr. Russ Miller discusses how CCR has been able to enable research, scholarship, and economic development within UB and Western New York. Further, he describes the resources, both in terms of hardware, software, and personnel, available in the Center for Computational Research.
• January 4: The SUNY Buffalo Center for Excellence is cited as a key element to Western New York's future in the editorial "The State of the State", Buffalo News, page C4.
• January 4: Russ Miller, Director of CCR, gave the presentation "UB's Center for Computational Research" at the Buffalo Byte Belt meeting. This meeting was hosted by CCR at the University at Buffalo.
• January 3: Announcement of Center for Excellence at Buffalo. Governor Pataki's State of the State address provides information on a New York State Center for Excellence in bioinformatics, led by SUNY-Buffalo's Center for Computational Research, with partners Roswell Park, Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, and a consortium of industrial partners. A key statement from the detailed plan follows:
  

  "Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics at Buffalo: This Center will, through the University of Buffalo's Center for Computational Research, create academic and industrial partnerships with Roswell Park, the Hauptman Woodward Medical Research Institute, Praxair, Advanced Refractory Technologies (ART), Ethicon, Veridian, and Life Technologies, among others. The supercomputing capability to decipher the structure of proteins and genes is a critical element of the new industry of bioinformatics."

• January 3: CCR's cutting edge technology highlight's Channel 4's news story "State of the State -- Pataki Proposes Big Plans to Revitalize Niagara Falls & Billion Dollar Plan for UB, other".