The University at Albany has announced a major hardware equipment donation from Sun Microsystems, Inc. which will provide state-of-the-art computing power for the University's new Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management (CESTM), the high-tech facility that will house the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC), the state's Center for Advanced Thin Film Technology (CAT), a regional National Weather Service forecast office, and a high-technology incubator program.
The Sun Microsystems donation features a Sun(TM) Ultra(TM) Enterprise(TM) 6000 server, which will support three specific scientific activities at the Center: database construction, management and retrieval of archival data; complex system modeling and forecasting; and education and training.
ASRC scientists will develop database systems in two major areas: air quality and solar radiation. The first project involves development of a data archive, analysis and distribution system, to be used with research and environmental monitoring systems operated by the ASRC and other state and federal agencies. The second ASRC project involves two solar radiation databases, which are being developed throughout the U.S., and in cooperation with other collaborators, to provide access to over 60 regional sites that collect fundamental data on the amount and composition of sunlight.
Three groups of University scientists are working in modeling and forecasting: the ASRC's Regional Pollution Modeling Group, which is developing a real-time pollution forecasting system based its Regional Acid Deposition Model; the ASRC Climate System Science group, which is conducting research in modeling and diagnostic studies of the Earth's climate system in an effort to understand the physical and chemical process associated with global warming and stratospheric ozone depletion; and researchers at CAT, which is modeling deposition phenomena associated with chemical vapor deposition.
The ASRC is also developing photochemical air quality modeling courseware for dissemination in developing countries as part of an international science program to build science capacity in environmental and atmospheric chemistry. In addition, the University and the National Weather Service will provide interactive informational kiosks in the atrium of CESTM for public tours, school groups or individual visitors.
President Hitchcock said, "We are most grateful for the generosity of Sun Microsystems, whose gift provides the foundation for the powerful technical computing capacity which will be used by the scientists and researchers affiliated with CESTM. The success of CESTM rests on partnerships like this between the University and industry."
"Sun is excited to play such an integral part in the development of the Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management," said Jean Griffin-Holst, director of Academic and Research Computing at Sun. "It's an opportunity for Sun's UltraSPARC(TM) systems to be used in helping the University at Albany optimize its technical computing capacity as well as assisting its researchers in achieving their research and education goals."
Since its inception in 1982, Sun Microsystems, Inc., has become a leading provider of hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $7 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries.