A forerunner in the area of undergraduate computational science for several years and one of the first in the nation to offer a formal program in it, Wittenberg, joined by its two research partners, recently received national attention in the form of $1 million in federal funding for its foward-thinking and commitment to advancing the relatively new field.

The $1 million allocation from the U.S. House of Representatives is earmarked for collaborative research efforts that include Wittenberg students and faculty members, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, with whom the university signed an educational partnership agreement almost two years ago, and the Ohio Supercomputer Center-Springfield, which is currently planning a local expansion that includes a new facility in the NextEdge Technology Park.

“Wittenberg is extremely grateful to Congressman David L. Hobson for his vision and leadership in securing federal funds that will not only extend computational science research opportunities for our students and faculty, but will also greatly advance technological initiatives in the Springfield community,” said President Mark H. Erickson. Hobson (R-Springfield) is a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee and chairman of the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, which developed the bill.

Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Computational Science Program Jim Noyes, who has been a member of the statewide users’ group for OSC since its inception and worked at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for years, has long been an advocate of this project. After reading a National Academy of Sciences publication titled “Computing the Future” in 1992, Noyes drafted a white paper that included a proposal for computational science and the development of technological resources more than eight years ago, long before computational science was on most schools’ educational radar.

Computational science combines the methodologies of computer science with the techniques of applied mathematics to model and solve problems in the natural and social sciences. Traditionally, research was performed in a laboratory mixing chemicals or by developing theories, but computational science allows researchers to work through modeling and simulation, as they do when designing aircraft or mapping the human genetic code.

Coincidentally, President George W. Bush received a report from the Presidential Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC), which urged the country’s universities and federal agencies to become more proactive in the area of computational science.

The collaborative project will initially center on the computer science, biology and chemistry disciplines, but Noyes hopes to add students and faculty members conducting research in other areas soon. “You should start small and do what you can do and do it well,” Noyes said. “We’re also looking to eventually expand this beyond Wright-Patt to work with other businesses and organizations in this region.”

– Ryan Maurer