Monash IT undergraduates embark on research visit to UCSD

MURPA Program

Four Faculty of Information Technology undergraduates will visit the University of California in San Diego (UCSD) over the summer break to engage in leading edge research projects before returning to Monash to complete their honours degrees in 2009.

The students are engaging in a new initiative called MURPA (Monash Undergraduate Research Projects Abroad). MURPA is modelled on UCSD's PRIME program, funded by the National Science Foundation, with a focus on eScience and Grid Computing, and provides a unique experience for undergraduate students to engage in research projects.

MURPA involves both an advanced seminar scheme, in which students can attend seminars given by world leading experts; and placement in an internationally renowned research group - initially at the UCSD. The seminar scheme is novel, because it uses a cutting edge High Definition interactive video link to the University of California, making it feasible to attract some of the world's best researchers "virtually" to Monash. These seminars also allow students to "meet" potential UCSD mentors and get some information about potential projects. Students will be placed for a period of 8 weeks, allowing them to integrate into the research groups as team members.

The students selected this year, and their research projects, are:

• Mr. Hoang Nguyen [BSE], who will work with San Diego Supercomputer Center expert, Ms Ilkay Altintas, on a software engineering oriented project involving the Kepler scientific workflow engine;
• Ms. Li, Guanghua (Aimee) [BCS], who will work with Dr. Wilfred Li on the virtual screening for inhibitors against avian influenza;
• Mr. Nicholas Barnes [BSc/BCS], who will work with Professors Andrew McCulloch and Roy Kerckhoffs on the software simulation of the heart; and
• Mr. Peter Serwylo [BITS], who will work with Dr. Jurgen Schulze on the visualization of 3D city models using large mega-pixel tiled display walls.

The students are shown below (Peter Serwylo on laptop computer screen) with Prof. David Abramson (ARC Professorial Fellow) and Dr Ronald Pose (MURPA Director).

MURPA has pilot funding from the the Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (International), the Monash eResearch Centre (MeRC), the Faculty of Information Technology and Monash Abroad.

See http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/about/news/archive/2008/news-ucsd-students.html for more details.