RT service highlight: Training & outreach

Research Technologies strives to serve both IU and the local community by providing training and outreach programs. Programs focused on teaching, informing, and conveying the roles that technology can play in research and discovery continue to evolve. In the coming year, RT will extend its outreach to local educators by providing more hands-on technology experiences for young students. RT will also engage directly with the IU community to expand its reach, building partnerships with faculty and researchers to support them in their quest for new knowledge.

Use case: HUF19 and THE CAAV conferences

In October, RT hosted two conferences in the same week: the High Performance Storage System (HPSS) User Forum, or HUF19, and the Campus Alliance for Advanced Visualization, or CAAV. HUF19, with 77 attendees from 11 states and 6 countries, explored the importance of HPSS around the world, IU’s 20-year history of HPSS, and the HPSS issues faced by different organizations. CAAV, which includes both academic and industry members, boasted a range of workshops on everything from virtual reality to sustainability.

“The real strength of the CAAV is the diversity of who comes and what’s presented. Sometimes we can have a technically heavy, pretty intense presentation that might have information to do with mathematics, graphics, compute, and computing architecture, and different methods of rendering. And the next presentation might be someone talking about how to make a multimillion-dollar facility sustainable.”

Emma-Jane Alexander
Manager, Shell 3D Visualization Center, University of Wyoming

Use case: Ready, set, robots!

This two-day summer camp requires no pre-requisites, just a curious mind and an interest in technology. Kids grades 7-12 tour the IU Data Center and learn basic computer programming skills as they work in teams alongside RT staff to command LEGO Mindstorms^® robots, simulating a Mars rover mission. The camps end with a Robot Grand Challenge, where parents and friends gather to see the kids’ newly acquired skills.