2025 Research Computing Exhibition

posted March 30, 2025

The 16th annual Research Computing Exhibition was held on April 24, 2025, at the MSI offices in Walter Library. 

Thank you to our sponsors!

Platinum level

• PIER Group in partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Silver level

• VAST Data

Events included: 

• Panel discussion about careers in HPC fields
  • Moderator: Dr. Jim Wilgenbusch; Director, Research Computing
  • Panelists:
    • Dan McDonald, CSE-IT, Research Support Consultant
    • Kyle Stahl, Cargill, Senior Data Science Supervisor
    • Drew Stewart, Honeywell, Senior R&D Manager - AI and Computer Vision
• Presentations:
  • Welcome, RC Overview, and Funding Opportunities (Dr. Jim Wilgenbusch, Director, RC)
  • President's Task Force on AI (Dr. Jim Wilgenbusch, Director, RC)
  • MSI 2035 (Dr. Ben Lynch, Director, MSI)
  • Sustainable GeoCommunities (Tom Fisher, Director, SGC)
• Lightning talks from DSI Seed Grant awardees
  • How can large-scale ecological datasets help us understand the relationship between small mammal biodiversity and tick-borne disease? (Chris Wojan)
  • Genetic interaction-based machine learning models for disease risk prediction (Mathew Fischbach)
  • Non-destructive potato petiole nitrate-nitrogen prediction using chlorophyll meter and multi-source data fusion with machine learning (Seiya Wakahara)                                             
  • SWIF-TE: Identifying transposable element insertions from short-read data (Claire Menard)
  • From time series to topology: validating computational tools for mapping neural networks (Kate Dembny)
• Judged poster session with posters featuring work being done using Research Computing resources (see below to see list of winners)
• Tours of the MSI datacenter

Poster Session

Posters by MSI users competed in one of three categories, Life Sciences and Engineering; Physical Sciences and Engineering; and Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities. They were judged using the following criteria:

• How much did using Research Computing contribute to the outcome of the research presented?
• How well is the use of Research Computing and the research communicated on the poster?
• How well of the importance of this science communicated?

Judges:

• Chris Bartel, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
• Hayley Borck, Data Science Initiative
• Laura Fingerson, Research Computing
• Steven Friedenberg, Veterinary Clinical Sciences
• Todd Knutson, Minnesota Supercomputing Institute
• Chad Myers, Computer Science and Engineering
• Christine O’Connor, Minnesota Supercomputing Institute
• Jeff Shi, Minnesota Supercomputing Institute
• Qi Zhang, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

Life Sciences and Engineering 

Grand Prize Winner (travel award of $2,000):

Simulations of cell-mediated compaction in 3D discrete fiber models recapitulates hetereogeneous patterns of extracellular matrix remodeling
Authors:         Adam W.Y. Ley, Sabin Adhikari, Kevin D. Dorfman Victor H. Barocas
PI:                   Victor H. Barocas (Biomedical Engineering)

Runners-up (travel awards of $1,000):

Multiscale model of primary motor cortex circuits predicts evoked response to transcranial magnetic stimulation
Authors:         Zhihe Zhao, Da Som Choi, Aman Aberra, Alexander Opitz
PI:                   Alexander Opitz (Biomedical Engineering)

The first gene atlas of northern wild rice
Authors:         Maybell Banting, Matthew Haas, Lillian McGilp, Jennifer Kimball
PI:                   Jennifer Kimball (Agronomy and Plant Genetics)

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Grand Prize Winner (travel award of $2,000):

Electronic structure descriptors to design sulfide cathodes for Li-ion batteries
Authors:         Yi-Ting Cheng, Christopher J. Bartel
PI:                   Christopher J. Bartel (Chemical Engineering and Materials Science)

Runners-up (travel awards of $1,000):

Forecasting the flow of programmable catalytic loops through combined machine learning and microkinetic modeling
Authors:         Kyle Noordhoek, Madeline A. Murphy, Sallye R. Gathmann, Paul J. Dauenhauer, Christopher J. Bartel
PI:                   Christopher J. Bartel (Chemical Engineering and Materials Science)

Molecular simulations of hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography: Unveiling the retention mechanism and mixed-mode behavior 
Authors:         Hsiao-Feng Liu, J. Ilja Siepmann, Mark R. Schure, Stephanie A. Schuster, Peter J. Pellegrinelli
PI:                   J. Ilja Siepmann (Chemistry; Chemical Theory Center)

Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities

Grand Prize Winner (travel award of $2,000):

Mitochondrial Lineages Link 18th - 19th Century Afro-Peruvians to Diverse Ancestors
Authors:         Laura Pott, Jaime Zolik, José Luis Santa Cruz Alcalá, Claire Maass, Maria A. Nieves-Colón
PI:                   Maria A. Nieves-Colón (Anthropology)

Runner-up (travel award of $1,000):

Domestic vs. foreign law: Portfolio dynamics of sovereign debt 
Authors:         Lucas Belmudes, Angelo Mendes
PI:                   Manuel Amador (Economics)