A touch of the keyboard or push of the joystick, and massive dump trucks loaded with coal, giant combines harvesting soybeans, and aircraft observing landscapes do the work of a multitude of humans as software and satellite work together. So why, wondered Indiana University Professor Steven Johnson's computer science students, shouldn't the trip between Bloomington and Indianapolis be as simple as stepping into an elevator?

A touch of the keyboard or push of the joystick, and massive dump trucks loaded with coal, giant combines harvesting soybeans, and aircraft observing landscapes do the work of a multitude of humans as software and satellite work together. So why, wonder Indiana University professor Steven Johnson's computer science students, shouldn't the trip between Bloomington and Indianapolis be as simple as stepping into an elevator?

The future of scientific research lands in Indianapolis this week as some of the world's leading experts in scientific computing assemble at IUPUI for two international e-Science events. Indiana University was selected to host the events in part due to the growing reputation of IU and Indianapolis as a hub for life sciences research and development of the advanced technology that supports it.

IU Informatics professor Alex Vespignani has been elected to fellowship in the American Physical Society, the preeminent organization of physicists in the United States. Vespignani was honored for his contribution to the statistical physics of complex networks, in particular his seminal work on the spreading of viruses in real networks, according to the citation from the American Physical Society.

Not even an ocean could stand between them and success. The "ClusterMeisters," a team of students from the Indiana University School of Informatics and Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) were awarded first place in the SC08 Cluster Challenge, an international collegiate competition for leading-edge, energy-efficient high performance computing.

The "ClusterMeisters," a team of undergraduates from Indiana University and Technische Universität Dresden, will compete in the 2008 Cluster Challenge at SC08, the premier international conference for high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis. SC, formerly known as Supercomputing, celebrates its 20th anniversary when it opens November 17, 2008 in Austin, Texas. The goal of the Cluster Challenge competition is to showcase the ability of clusters and open-source software to solve interesting and important problems, and to expose undergraduates to state-of-the-art systems and the best and brightest of their peers.

A bioinformatics group within Indiana University's School of Informatics recently received three grants, two from the National Institutes of Health and one from Eli Lilly and Company. The grants will enhance IU's impact on life sciences research. The largest grant, from the NIH, is for $810,000 and spans three years.

Indiana University has been awarded $336,000 to help launch a new experimental network research infrastructure that one day will lead to the future of the Internet. Part of the Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) Project, IU is among 29 academic and industrial research teams to receive subcontract awards totaling $12 million from BBN Technologies, an advanced technology solutions firm. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, GENI prototyping supports the development of a national-scale suite of infrastructure for experimental research in groundbreaking network science and engineering.

Music informatics professor Chris Raphael has received a 3-year, $450,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for his proposal titled, "Real-Time Planning of a Conductable Orchestra."

Computerworld magazine announced in its August 2008 issue its "Top IT Schools to Watch 2008," and the Indiana University School of Informatics was among the 10 schools recognized in a feature article on graduate programs.

Two Indiana University School of Informatics faculty members have received a grant to investigate whether integrating a social networking component into the Wii gaming platform increases its user acceptance and social connectedness among the elderly.

A recent study by Indiana University School of Informatics researchers revealed that nearly 2.5 million Web pages on some of the Internet's most recognizable and trusted sites have 128,000 links that could be easily manipulated by phishers -- making them vulnerable to online scams.

Tonya Thompson-Stroman, a Ph.D. student in the Indiana University School of Informatics human-computer interaction design program, has been awarded a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program fellowship for her proposal "Technology Aided Environmental Stress Reduction for Long Duration Space Missions."

Two Indiana University School of Informatics graduates took a first-place award at the prestigious Imagine Cup finals, sponsored by Microsoft Corp. and held this year in Paris. David Roedl and Will Odom combined winning a highly competitive international competition with developing a project that had an impact on real-world environmental sustainability.

For Sandosh Vasudevan the word "leisure" doesn't necessarily compute. That's because Vasudevan, a native of India who came to Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis for graduate school, seemingly spends every waking moment developing software applications -- projects that are turning heads in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Eli Lilly and Co. has awarded a one-year, $120,000 grant to David Wild, assistant professor in the Indiana University School of Informatics, to research ways to data mine the ever-increasing amount of publicly available information about chemical compounds and their biological activities.

Research and scientific discoveries at the Indiana University School of Informatics will continue to flourish thanks to an ongoing program funded by Eli Lilly and Company. The $80,000 gift from the Indianapolis-based company will be used to support a fellowship for a graduate student pursuing a doctoral degree in informatics at the school's Indianapolis campus.

Two Indiana University School of Informatics graduate students are headed to Paris to compete in the sixth annual Imagine Cup, an international competition sponsored by Microsoft Corp.

Organizing committees for the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Scalable Computing 2008 eScience Conference are now accepting papers and proposals for tutorials; posters, exhibits, and demos; and workshops and special sessions. The 2008 eScience Conference is being hosted by Indiana University and will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, December 7-12, 2008 at the University Place Conference Center and Hotel on the campus of Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).

The IU School of Informatics has announced that Maureen Biggers will be joining the school as the assistant dean for diversity and education, effective Aug. 1. Biggers, who comes to IU from the College of Computing at Georgia Tech, has extensive experience in research and programs related to the inclusion of women and underrepresented minorities in computing.

Organizing committees for the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Scalable Computing 2008 eScience Conference are now accepting papers and proposals for tutorials; posters, exhibits, and demos; and workshops and special sessions. The 2008 eScience Conference is being hosted by Indiana University and will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, December 7-12, 2008 at the University Place Conference Center and Hotel on the campus of Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).

William Aspray, Rudy Professor of Informatics at the Indiana University School of Informatics, has co-edited a book selected by Choice Magazine as one of its Outstanding Academic Titles. The book, Women and Information Technology: Research on Underrepresentation, examines the reasons for the lack of women in IT fields.

Startup Weekend, a national business creation initiative, has announced that Bloomington Startup Weekend will be held Feb. 8-10 at Bloomington City Hall, 401 N. Morton St. Many of the organizers of the Bloomington event are students and faculty with IU's School of Informatics, which is co-sponsoring the Startup Weekend.

Imagine sharing your idea for the "Next Big Thing" in information technology with the founders of First Internet Bank, Interactive Intelligence and ExactTarget and with other executives who are responsible for some of Indiana's most successful technology firms. This is exactly what happens each week with students enrolled in "Entrepreneurship in Informatics," an Indiana University School of Informatics class taught by Mark Hill, managing partner of the venture capital firm Collina Ventures LLC.

Two IU School of Informatics faculty researchers have received a multi-year funding grant from One-to-One, a Boston-based digital marketing company that will bring to Indiana University's Bloomington campus a one-of-a-kind research laboratory to measure media and user engagement.