RCC is a finalist in this year’s ACS (Australian Computer Society) Digital Disruptors Awards for the second year in a row.
Last year, RCC won the award in its category, ‘Service transformation for the digital consumer—Government’, for leading the Metropolitan Data Caching Infrastructure (MeDiCI) project. MeDiCI is UQ’s data storage fabric for transferring research data —with minimal researcher effort— between data storage facilities, computers and scientific instruments, on and off campus.
RCC is a finalist in the same category this year, this time for its involvement in developing UQ’s latest high-performance computer, Wiener, a specialist machine for processing large volumes of imaging data.
Wiener provides significant computing capability for enhancing images from UQ’s advanced microscopes, and has been a runaway success with more users than RCC ever expected—currently more than 100.
Wiener was built with strategic funding from UQ and a consortium of the university’s various cutting-edge microscopy facilities housed within the Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis (CMM), Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), and Queensland Brain Institute (QBI).
RCC Director Professor David Abramson said this year’s ACS award nomination “underscores the terrific working relationship” RCC has with UQ researchers, many of whom work in the institutes. “Jake Carroll and the QBI team in particular have worked closely with RCC on this project, and have played a substantive role in the success of the Wiener project to date,” he said.
“Even if we don’t take out the overall prize this year, being shortlisted two years in a row is a great testament to the work being done at UQ.
“The Australian Computer Society is the peak professional body for IT in the country. Getting ACS recognition is rewarding because you are being judged by professionals who are validating the work you are doing,” said Prof. Abramson.
The ACS Digital Disruptors Awards focus on creative and positive disruption within ICT.
This year’s winners will be announced at a gala event on Thursday, 1 November in Melbourne, following the Reimagination Thought Leaders’ Summit.
