News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: May 12, 2014
CONTACT: John Davis, john.w.davis@ttu.edu
(806) 742-2136
Texas Tech Accepted to its First NSF Center in Cloud and Autonomic Computing to
Offer Industry-Oriented Research and Scientific Expertise to Investing Businesses
Researchers at Texas Tech University have joined a consortium of experts called the
Cloud and Autonomic Computing Center (CAC) to provide research and development to
businesses interested in these computing areas.
Alan Sill, a senior scientist at Texas Tech’s High Performance Computing Center
(HPCC) and the CAC site director, said Texas Tech will take on a leadership role in
cloud standards and reference implementations within the center, created and funded by
the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Cloud computing refers to the storing and accessing of data and computational services
on the Internet rather than using only a single computer’s hard drive and processor.
Autonomic computing systems work automatically, such as anti-spam software that
searches incoming email and automatically blocks suspicious ones.
Ravi Vadapalli, research scientist at the HPCC, and Yong Chen, an assistant professor of
computer science, serve as associate directors for the Texas Tech site. This team will
coordinate industry-oriented work by faculty and industry members. Texas Tech will
partner with University of Florida, Rutgers University and Mississippi State University as
CAC university sites.
“This is industry-funded, industry-oriented research,” Sill said. “The goal of our center is
to connect and engage Texas Tech researchers with companies around business-oriented
topics of interest in cloud computing and autonomic computing. The businesses access
skilled talent here and we provide innovative training opportunities in translational
research around those businesses’ fields of interest.”
The CAC is the only center of its kind focusing on cloud and autonomic computing out of
the approximately 60 centers funded by the NSF Industry/University Cooperative
Research Centers Program. Other centers in this program cover high-technology topics
such as robotic surgery, child-injury prevention and specialty sensors.
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“As a first of its kind for our university and the National Science Foundation, the Cloud
and Autonomic Computing Center at Texas Tech is a great example of industry and
academic collaboration,” said Chancellor Kent Hance. “Texas Tech has a wealth of
talented researchers who are providing real life solutions, and we are grateful to all of
those who made this project a reality.”
Vadapalli, an adjunct professor of petroleum engineering, said researchers want
companies to come to the CAC with their problems in computing and information
management so that researchers can provide new business development opportunities
“The CAC identifies innovative industry-research partnerships in emerging areas such as
Big Data analytics and helps sustain workforce development opportunities created
through these partnerships” said Chen, who also directs Texas Tech’s Data-Intensive
Scalable Computing Laboratory.
The center was funded with a five-year $300,000 grant from the NSF to run operations.
Companies join the CAC and obtain seats on the center advisory board in exchange for
fees starting at $35,000 a year, earning them the ability to select and approve research
projects and gain access to brand-new research and university capabilities.
Companies committed to join Texas Tech’s CAC so far include Covenant Health System,
StackVelocity, Aerospace Corp., Happy State Bank and the Defense Information Systems
Agency (DISA), the information technology advisory arm to the U.S. government for the
Department of Defense.
“We’re going to help our members accelerate adoption of new cloud methods, standards
and services,” Sill said. “We’ll find ways to use these technologies to solve real-world
problems while managing risk factors such as information security, privacy, compliance
and regulation. We’ll use expertise from multiple fields, including basic sciences,
engineering, business, health sciences, informatics and law to support the research
partnerships we create through the center.”
Center industry members expressed enthusiasm for the new effort.
“Big Data intelligence is revolutionizing the healthcare industry and information
technology is playing an unprecedented role in information-centric decision support
systems in both clinical, and non-clinical sectors,” said Paul Arrington, Regional Vice
President for Strategic Services, Covenant Health System. “We envision our partnership
with CAC will help by addressing research, clinical and business challenges in
population health, and effective care management of patients across our care continuum
and affiliates”
StackVelocity already has begun including references to the new CAC center at Texas
Tech in its corporate advertising.
“This program will help expand our efforts to apply university research to solving
industry problems,” said Jodey C. Arrington, vice chancellor at the Office of Research &
Commercialization. “Industry sponsored research is the fastest growing source of
research funding at the top twenty five universities in America, which is why these
partnerships are so important to Texas Tech and to consumers everywhere.”
The university also is pursuing another NSF center through the Industry/University
Cooperative Research Centers program to focus on wind storm damage mitigation. That
center, to be led by Daan Liang, an associate professor in the Department of Construction
Engineering & Engineering Technology, has reached the planning stage after official
approval from the NSF to proceed.
“This new Cloud and Autonomic Computing Center marks a major milestone in the
development of Texas Tech as a major national research university,” said M. Duane
Nellis, Texas Tech president. “By offering our researchers’ abilities to prospective paying
clients to tackle problems that businesses are currently facing, we not only have the
ability to create serious solutions for our clients, but also the marketplace as a whole.”
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CONTACT Alan Sill, Texas Tech’s CAC site director and an adjunct professor of
physics, Texas Tech University, (806) 834-5940 or alan.sill@ttu.edu; Jodey C.
Arrington, vice chancellor, Office of Research & Commercialization, Texas Tech
University, (806) 742-4105 or jodey.arrington@ttu.edu.
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