A student explores aerial imagery within a simulated environment provided by the CAVE facility at Mizzou Engineering.
Over his 10 years at the University of Missouri, Prasad Calyam, Greg G. Gillion Professor of Cyber Security, has led engineering teams that have helped advance MU's high-performance computing and big data analytics technological footprint.
Calyam, who also directs MU’s Cyber Education, Research and Infrastructure (CERI) Center, attributes his team’s success in obtaining federal funding from agencies like the National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to ongoing support and collaboration with the Division of Information Technology.
“If our research team wants to develop and utilize AI capabilities to improve image analytics in biomedical or manufacturing areas, we call the IT Research Support Solutions (ITRSS) team for policy guidance, technology adaptations and purchases,” Calyam said.
ITRSS is part of the MizzouForward initiative and an associated $7 million investment to develop next-generation computing resources and strengthen the university’s research data ecosystem.
Although computer science researchers doing groundbreaking work sometimes have needs that university IT partners have not encountered, Calyam said their support from initial stages to implementation continues to be invaluable and, over the long term, enables cutting-edge technologies to become mainstream and beneficial to a larger group of MU investigators.
Calyam and ITRSS technologists worked together to win federal funding for the creation of cyber infrastructure engineer positions; Mizzou CAVE, a computer-assisted virtual environment for 3D simulations; and Science DMZ, a big data network infrastructure for world-class research projects and partnerships.
Calyam also was among the researchers who advocated for the university’s newest high-power computing environment known as Hellbender, doubling computer central processing units from 7,000 to 14,000.
“ITRSS is building relationships across campus so that our team has more opportunities to serve a broader scope of researchers,” said Matthew Keeler, associate director of information technology. “As opportunities for innovation increase, the IT Research Support Solutions team is here to ensure all researchers can go further, faster.”
Calyam’s team recently secured a $500,000 NSF grant to develop a novel storage infrastructure that will benefit many at MU, including plant scientists, engineers and researchers using advanced technology core facilities. The new resource, which will use AI methods to perform automated image data collection and analysis, is another way researchers and ITRSS are working hand in hand to improve the university’s research data ecosystem and educate the next generation.