Fall 2011 - ECE - University of Maryland

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cover STORY
JaJa Part of New $27.5M Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center
Dr. Joseph JaJa, a faculty
member in the Department
of Electrical and Computer
Engineering (ECE) and the
University of Maryland Institute
for Advanced Computer Studies
(UMIACS), is known as both a
leader and a scholar in his field.
His leadership talents served
him well during his ten year
tenure as the director of UMIACS
and most recently as VP and
interim CIO for the University of
Maryland, College Park. It comes
as no surprise that Dr. JaJa is a
founding, executive team member
of the University’s newest forwardthinking
initiative.
The National Socio-
Environmental Synthesis Center
(SESYNC) is a revolutionary
research center focused on
developing novel solutions
for today’s most pressing
environmental challenges. The
mission of this endeavor is to
foster synthesis research, combining data,
models, and knowledge from multiple
disciplines to address challenges related to
the structure, function, and sustainability of
socio-environmental systems.
SESYNC will cultivate collaborative
research on critical issues such as water
availability, sustainable food production and
the interaction between human activity and
healthy ecosystems. Science and engineering
faculty from the University of Maryland,
environmental economists from Resources
for the Future, a Washington, D.C-based
nonprofit research organization, and social
scientists from the University of Michigan
will lead the center’s activities.
“This center is different from any the computational and data-needs of all
other—it is much like a think tank participants. “SESYNC will feature the
without a set of pre-determined projects,” latest in high-end computing, analysis, and
says JaJa. “Our primary goal will be visualization tools that will put scientists
to engage national and international and policymakers on the same information
researchers as well as decision makers to plane,” he said.
co-develop the research questions to be The tools JaJa will implement can
addressed by the center. We cannot be synthesize data and models from disparate fields
prescriptive; we must be inclusive.” such as economics and biology, making complex
According to JaJa, teams of information accessible to researchers in a way
researchers will be invited to meet at the that promotes collaboration and innovation.
center three to four times a year with an “We intend to create a new model for
agenda to tackle big problems, create a accelerating environmental discovery which
plan for collaboration and continue that will come from the seamless communication
collaboration after leaving the center. and collaboration between disciplines as
JaJa will manage the entire cyber- diverse as computer science, engineering,
infrastructure of the center and support biology, public policy, geography and
CONNECTIONS � FALL 2011