University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, National Center for Supercomputing Applications

The (Data & Informatics Graduate Intern-traineeship: Materials at the Atomic Scale) DIGI-MAT program was the vision of University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign (UIUC) Prof. Harley T. Johnson. Prof. Johnson currently serves as Associate Dean for Research, Grainger College of Engineering; Professor, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering; Faculty Affiliate, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and Director/Principal Investigator (PI) of the DIGI-MAT program. He is also a 2021 Presidential Medallion recipient. The medallion is the highest honor the University of Illinois system president can bestow upon faculty and administration. Prof. Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medallion for his leadership behind the University of Illinois system’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the first of its kind – Shield Saliva Test. While leading the University in the COVID response, Prof. Johnson was awarded 3-million dollars from the National Science Foundation for his DIGI-MAT - NRT grant proposal to launch the first of its kind, a program that focuses on research at the intersection of materials science and data informatics - the DIGI-MAT program. A program dedicated to training graduate students across several departments (computer science, physics, materials science, mechanical engineering, chemistry, iSchool, statistics, physics) with an enthusiasm for material and data informatics.
The DIGI-MAT grant was written in collaboration with and is administrated through, the UIUC, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). NCSA is a supercomputing research hub at the epicenter of transdisciplinary research. Since 1986, this pioneering innovation center has united academic institutions and global companies in search of the answers to the world’s most challenging problems and helping meet the needs of future generations. NCSA is one of five facilities created by the National Science Foundation’s Supercomputer Centers Program. Go here to see some of NCSA’s advanced data visualization tours and images.
The Grainger College of Engineering is also a collaborator and contributor.