VISTA Collaboratory

Students from Rochester's East High School got a sense of how startling science can be when they spent the day in the lab with professors and researchers from the Department of Biology.

Launched in 2016, the institute serves as a hub, bringing together researchers in fields such as public health and political science, with experts in machine learning and data mining.

A “virtual” re-creation of early settlements on Smith's Island, Bermuda, offers professor Michael Jarvis and his students immersive experience of the site they are working to excavate.

"Simulated molecular clouds are beautiful, intricate, and ever-changing -- properties that make them ideal candidates for high-powered visualization," wrote PhD student Erica Kaminski about her award-winning images.

The new VISTA Collaboratory, located in the Carlson Science and Engineering Library, completes a high performance supercomputing system on a massive scale and is one of only a handful of similar labs in the U.S. The display consists of an array of 24 monitors, is 20 feet wide and 8 feet tall, and has a resolution approaching that of IMAX theaters.