Summer workshop introduces high school students to computational science

Teams of local high school students explored ways to use hospital and patient-treatment databases to improve the overall patient experience as part of a unique and intensive UB informatics workshop.

The 2015 Eric Pitman Annual Summer Workshop in Computational Science, an annual two-week program that began on June 29, introduced students to the application of computer modeling and simulation to solve problems in science and engineering. Students will present their findings tomorrow.

During the workshop, students received tours of state-of-the art facilities and attended lectures by UB faculty experts on topics ranging from the human genome to using supercomputers to decode DNA. Serving as lecturers were Thomas Furlani, director, Center for Computational Research (CCR); Marc Halfon, associate professor of biochemistry; Bruce Pitman, dean, College of Arts and Sciences; Jaroslaw Zola, assistant professor of computer science and engineering; and Peter Winkelstein, executive director, Institute for Healthcare Informatics.

CCR has hosted the workshop since 1999. In 2007 it was renamed to honor the memory of Eric Pitman, who was a freshman at St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute when he passed away in February of that year after a brief illness.