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GCN Home > 07/02/07 issue

Daniel Reed | It’s software at the core

Interview with Daniel Reed, director of the Renaissance Computing Institute

By Joab Jackson

It seems fitting that Daniel Reed is director of the Renaissance Computing Institute, because he is a bit of a Renaissance man himself — at least when it comes to computing. Reed has proved influential in a remarkable variety of spheres. He advises the president as a member of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. He leads the Computer Research Association.

He’s also overseen the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and he was principal investigator and chief architect at the National Science Foundation’s TeraGrid project.

The way Reed reckons, RCI’s goal is to push beyond the traditional boundaries of computer science. It tackles tough computational problems not only with computer science but also with the aid of business and the social sciences. The institute was founded in 2004 by Duke University, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the state of North Carolina.

GCN: What does RCI do?

Reed: The highest priority is to look at how computer technology affects broad societal problems. It’s really about bringing people together across disciplinary boundaries. I think a lot of problems we deal with in this decade lie at the intersection of multiple disciplines. Our role is to be a catalyst for innovation. And that spans everything from traditional computer science to supporting the humanities or performing arts.

There is advancing computing as [a goal], which is the basic technology research, and then there is application. And it is important to keep them coupled. For any given technology, there could be a wide variety of ways it could be advanced. Having a set of driving problems that defines opportunity will help push technology in certain directions.

One of the big problems we’re addressing now is rapid population growth in environmentally sensitive areas. As an example, in North Carolina, we have a rapid coastal population growth in areas with fragile ecosystems [that] are susceptible to severe weather. How do we look at predicting the effect of hurricanes and storm surge in those areas? Our goal is to forecast what the impact is likely to be and where it will happen and — in the longer term — use that information to influence zoning and planning.

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