“The technology is actually being integrated not only into one special FPGA lab but also into all four years of the undergraduate electrical and computer engineering degree curriculum,” Foist said. The FPGA-based high speed supercomputer, purchased from Pico Computing, resulted in the company partnering with CBU faculty and students to conduct research using a known bioinformatics algorithm with guidance from a Pico expert in this area of business development. Bioinformatics uses computers to do rapid DNA sequence comparisons needed for cancer research.
working simultaneously,” Donaldson said. “It can literally process millions of pieces of information at the same time.” The effect has been a catalyst for learning, according to Donaldson. More advanced students benefit by using the technology in classes and projects, but even freshmen entering the engineering programs are affected when they see its capabilities. “When you take a complicated piece of technology to a freshman lab, they get excited about more advanced courses,” Donaldson said. “It’s a source of enthusiasm in the College of Engineering.”
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“The supercomputer makes decisions as fast as hundreds of desktop computers 1
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On this page, from left: 1 Alex Muganza, David Kari, Dr. Grace Ni, Andre Zebaze and Bertrand Dushime 2 Mary Hanson, Dr. Ni, Jim DeVore with the NAO robots 3 Virtex 5 FPGA board, funded by Keck 4 Alex Muganza, David Kari, Dr. Grace Ni, Andre Zebaze and Bertrand Dushime 5 Zach Taylor with the FPGA board
29 | THE ROUNDTABLE | SPRING 2013