Indiana University has announced that it would replace its Big Red supercomputer with the fastest university-owned supercomputer in the nation. Named Big Red II, the new system will be capable of operating at a peak rate of one petaFLOPS, or one thousand trillion floating-point operations per second -- 25 times faster than the original Big Red first acquired in 2006. The university plans to install the massive new system in its state-of-the-art data center on the Bloomington campus in spring 2013. Full Story

The Indiana University Board of Trustees has approved the merger of the university's School of Informatics and School of Library and Information Science into a single school to be called the IU School of Informatics and Computing. The change will affect schools at both the Bloomington and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campuses and is being heralded by IU President Michael A. McRobbie and administrators at both schools as an opportunity to create a single school of expanded breadth, size and quality that addresses the rapid evolution of informatics, computing and libraries. Full Story

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $4.297 million grant to Indiana University's Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, which, along with four other organizations, will improve the practice of cybersecurity for National Science Foundation scientific cyberinfrastructure with the establishment of the Center for Trustworthy Scientific Cyberinfrastructure. CTSC will provide readily available cybersecurity expertise and services tailored to the NSF computational science community, as well as leadership and coordination across projects. Full Story

It started out as an intriguing footnote connecting two of Eden Medina's greatest interests -- technology and Latin America -- and then turned into a multiple award-winning book for the Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing associate professor. Medina's "Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile" has been awarded both the Computer History Museum Prize and the Edelstein Prize for what critics called a "remarkable" and "compellingly written" book on the early computer network designed to regulate Chile's economic transition to socialism during the government of Salvador Allende. Full Story

The National Center for Women & Information Technology, along with an Indiana University-led consortium of universities and corporations, has kicked off the third annual Indiana Aspirations in Computing Award competition for Indiana high school girls in Grades 9 to 12. Twenty young women will be recognized for their computing-related achievements and interests in a competition that is part of a nationwide effort spearheaded by NCWIT to generate visibility for women's participation in the field of computing and ultimately to encourage more young women to choose careers in technology. Winners are acknowledged for their outstanding aptitude and interest in technology and computing, leadership ability, academic history and plans for post-secondary education. Full Story

In the Oct. 1, 2012, edition of IT Matters @ IU, Indiana University announced IU Online, a major strategic investment in online education designed to accelerate the development and delivery of quality online courses and programs at IU's campuses statewide. Also in the edition, the United States Department of Energy awarded Indiana University's Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research a three-year grant to further research and enhance how scientific collaborations across the country handle identity management; the National Science Foundation selected Indiana University as a partner in a grant to create the Science Gateway Institute; and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis celebrated two newly renovated testing facilities with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Sept. 12. Full Story