Research is a strong driving force behind technology and the advancement of research and it was the focus of the Nevada EPSCoR’s annual Cyberinfrastructure Day, held on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno on Monday, May 2, 2016. Faculty, researchers and students from the Nevada System of Higher Education and teachers from Nevada school districts attended the event at the Harry Reid Engineering Laboratory Building.

Guests participated in lectures, demonstrations, lab tours and a poster session highlighting the latest technical advances in high-end computing, networking and visualization and how they intersect with research, education and workforce development. Research lectures explored topics such as the use of technology in field research, collaborative robotics and the human-computer interaction. Dr. Sergiu Dascalu provided an overview of the research and education capabilities of the Nevada Research Data Center (NRDC), while technician Eric Fritzinger demonstrated NRDC functions. Guests engaged in demonstrations from the robotics, drones, seismology and high-performance computing and visualization labs. Several students, funded by NSF EPSCoR, presented their CI-related research during a poster session. Session presenters, representing many disciplines, showcased their cyber-related research, answering questions and sharing their research with other student researchers.

The CI Days event is a collaborative effort between the cyberinfrastructure and workforce development components of the NSF EPSCoR and the Solar Energy-Water-Environment Nexus in Nevada project. Next year’s CI day event will take place in Southern Nevada, on the campus of UNLV. This year’s event successfully brought over 60 faculty, students and teachers together to understand the benefits that cyberinfrastructure can bring to scholarly pursuits, to see what others are doing with cyberinfrastructure, and to learn what resources are available on the campus of UNR, across institutions, and nationally.