Researchers and Collaborators

The Parallel and Cloud Computing (PC2) Laboratory is a multifaceted research body that consists of and is fostered by computational scientists pursuing a variety of scientific research involving parallel, distributed, and cloud computing. The researchers in the lab include faculty members at Miami University, graduate students, undergraduate students, and even high school students. This page lists some of the core members and collaborators in PC2 Lab.

PC2 Lab Director

Dhananjai M. Rao (Pronounce, vCard.vcf)

Email: raodm@miamioh.edu

Web page: http://www.users.miamioh.edu/raodm/

Dr. Dhananjai M. Rao is the director of PC Lab. He is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science and Software Engineering (CSE) department at Miami University. In addition to over 5 years of academic experience, he also has over 5 years of industrial experience. His areas of interest include: High performance parallel & distributed computing and Supercomputing Eco-modeling in silico macro-epidemiology, and bioinformatics parallel, distributed, web-based constructive and virtual simulation dynamic multi-scale and multi-resolution modeling. Contact him if you have questions about the products and publication or if you would like additional information about the PC2 Lab.

Join the PC2 Lab

The PC2 Lab actively seeks to involve budding computational scientists who embody the core values of the lab's culture, namely: passion, high level of self motivation, and commitment to actively pursue research. Graduate, undergraduate, and high school students who would like to pursue research in PC2 Lab are encouraged to email their resume to Dr. Rao for consideration.

Gradudate Students

Emily Schmidt

Email: schmidee@miamioh.edu

Emily Schmidt is a graduate student currently working towards a Masters in Computer Science at Miami University. She has completed two Bachelors degrees in 2012 at Miami University, one Computer Science and the other in Software Engineering with a co-major in Interactive Media Studies. Currently she is working on research in individual based models for use in various applications including epidemic response and evacuation simulations.

Keith Batesole

Email: batesokr@miamioh.edu

Keith Batesole is currently a combined student in the CSE (Computer Science and Software Engineering) department with a B.S double major in Computer Science and Software Engineering as well as a M.S in Computer Science. His advisor is Dr. Rao and a working topic for his thesis is spatial computations of GIS (Geographical Information System) data in a distributed High Performance Computing (HPC) environment.

Paul Bondurant

Email: bondurpm@miamioh.edu

Graduate Student Paul Bondurant is a graduate of the greatest, American university, the University of Arkansas, where he swiftly earned a Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science with minors in Mathematics, Music, and Sociology. Currently, Paul is pursuing a Masters in Computer Science at Miami University. Paul's most recent employment was two stints at Data-Tronics Inc., a subsidiary of Arkansas Best Freight, as an application developer. His favorite areas of computer science include Computer Vision, Image Processing, and algorithms. His main love though is football, especially college football. His current research is involves improving Miami University Simulation Environment (MUSE) by introducing Dynamic Process Migration.

Srivatsan Varadharajan

Email: varadhsa@miamioh.edu

Srivatsan Varadharajan is a graduate student in the Computer Science and Software Engineering department at Miami University. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Information Technology from Madras Institute of Technology, one of the top institutions in India. Before coming to Miami University, he worked as a Senior Programmer at Accenture India for around 3 years. Srivatsan's current Master's research is on attempting to demonstrate a static load balancing of nodes allocated to a given model on the Cloud.

Collaborators

John Karro

Email: karroje@miamioh.edu

Web page: http://www.eas.muohio.edu/people/karroje

John Karro is an assistant professor in computer science and software engineering department at Miami University. He contributed to the development of the algorithms underlying PEACE, consulted on the tool development, provided background biological knowledge, and organized and directed the testing, statistical analysis of results, and development of methods for parameter optimization. He continues to consult and guide students in PC2 Lab.

Alexander Chernyakhovsky

Email: achernya@mit.edu

Web page: http://www.achernya.com

Alexander Chernyakhovsky was instrumental in conceving, desining, and developing SEARUMS, an ecological modeling and parallel simulation environment for analysis of global epidemiology of avian influenza. He continues to periodically enhance the system and has coauthored papers with Dr. Rao in the past. Having graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) he is currently working with Google Inc. He continues to provide consultation and technical support for PC2 Lab.

Chun Liang

Email: liangc@miamioh.edu

Web page: http://www.cas.muohio.edu/botany/people/profiles/Liang.html

Dr. Chun Liang is an associate professor in Bioinformatics in the Botany department at Miami University. His lab (http://www.bioinfolab.org) focuses on developing bioinformatics software tools, building biological databases (http://www.conifergdb.org) and conducting data analysis in plant genomics, proteiomics and metabolomics. He provides the biological perspective, motivation and guidance, as well as the data sets used for implementing and testing the tools.

Alumni

Meseret R. Gebre

Meseret Gebre was an undergraduate and a graduate student from the Computer Science and Sofware Engineering Department at Miami University. Meseret's masters thesis work resulted in design and development of the Miami University Simulation Environment (MUSE). This primary scientific contribution was design and development of a unique datastructure for rapid scheduling and management of virtual timestamped events in an optimistically synchronized parallel simulation.

James C. Moler

James Moler was a graduate student in the computer science and software engineering department at Miami University. He assisted Dr. Dhananjai Rao in developing the PEACE software. Foremost among his contributions is designing the two-pass D2 algorithm, a refinement of the original D2 distance metric. He also contributed to efficient implementations of heuristics, testing the software, and fixing errors. In addition, he conducted statistical tests of the tool on simulated and real data sets.