Grant Opens New Research Possibilities for Central Valley Colleges

By Patty Guerra, UC Merced

October 29, 2024

The symposium will kick off long-lasting partnerships.

When regents selected Merced for the newest University of California campus in 1995, the choice brought promise for the entire region: of an improved workforce, advanced technology, economic impact and groundbreaking research.

Nearly 30 years later, a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation is helping UC Merced fulfill part of that promise in a big way. The Central Valley Advanced Research Computing (CENVAL-ARC) project is aimed at transforming computer research throughout the Central Valley.

"The overarching purpose is to provide computational research for researchers who don't have access to cutting-edge technology," said Sarvani Chadalapaka, director of Cyberinfrastructure and Research Technologies (CIRT) within the Office of Information Technology. UC Merced partnered with California State universities Stanislaus, Fresno and Sacramento on the project, which will include a symposium next spring.

The grant paid for the installation of hardware that will expand UC Merced's computing capacity and make it available for partner institutions. The new hardware was installed in late September.

"It's a big deal," said Nick Dugan, vice chancellor and chief information officer at UC Merced. "This is not only a significant award to the institution, but the collaborative nature of it is really important."

It's part of UC Merced's service mission to provide an intellectual and resource hub to support innovation to impact the region and bolster the knowledge economy in the Central Valley, said Hrant Hratchian, vice provost and graduate dean at UC Merced.

"We've reached a point where UC Merced can authentically engage with our partners throughout the Central Valley as true intellectual partners," Hratchian said. "This is an important milestone in the institutional evolution of the campus."

CENVAL-ARC computer nodes will be used for research in several fields across disciplines, including genomics, evolutionary biology, ecology, physics, chemistry and machine learning, Chadalapaka said. Researchers at the partnering schools are excited for the new opportunity.

"CENVAL-ARC will provide an invaluable opportunity for Fresno State research to be more collaborative with researchers throughout the Central Valley," said Mario Bañuelos, associate professor of math at California State University, Fresno, who earned his Ph.D. at UC Merced. "As a newly designated R2 (high research activity) university, Fresno State research will also be able to further flourish with access to computational infrastructure through faculty and student use."

Bañuelos said for his own work, "It will provide my students an opportunity to obtain their results faster, especially because my work incorporates the use of machine learning approaches for problems arising in biology, genomics and endemic diseases."

The next step is to bring together researchers not just from the partner institutions but from others, including community colleges and government agencies, who might use the technology at next spring's symposium.

"The conference is intended to be that event that creates the network," Dugan said. "It will lay down foundational training and framework that ultimately carry on indefinitely.

"Having it happen on our campus, and having us be the physical and metaphorical anchor, is really exciting."

More information on the project is available here.