Page 7 - 2021 OIT Progress Report

DEDICATED TECHNOLOGY SERVICES CONTRIBUTES TO FACULTY RESEARCH
As SMU strives to obtain Tier 1 research
status, OIT’s capacity for research projects and development methods required reinforcement. The dedicated Research & Data Science Services team was created to coordinate technology
work needed by faculty researchers. This team includes specialists in academic research, project management, and network infrastructure. In addition to this new unit, the OIT Data Science Hub was established in Ford Hall to
improve research support services.
Research & Data Science Services has already made significant impacts
on projects across
the University. In the
Chemistry Department,
OIT HPC Specialist Dr.
Rob Kalescky worked
with Dr. John Wise to
transform a legacy amalgam
of small scripts and functions
into a cohesive, unified executable
for improved functionality and possible commercial avenues. That executable is ChemGen, a program that aids in the design of medicinal drugs. “Dr. Kalescky ... was a dream match to
push the original ChemGen algorithms into a form that will be commercially viable,” Dr. Wise reports. “Having such an amazingly proficient computer programmer, who is also a Ph.D.-level chemist, working on a project that optimizes the medicinal chemistry of lead compounds in drug development, was an incredible stroke of luck.”
This team also assisted Dr. Maryann Cairns and the Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute of Sustainable Apparel and Textiles. Dr. Cairns was eager to engage people in the importance of sustainability. One major target for sustainability improvements lies in the apparel industry. Dr. Cairns worked with Guillermo Vasquez and
Dr. Eric Godat to bring together the worlds of fashion, sustainability, and technology to create
an innovative concept of a smart “Green Jacket.” This jacket contains
a device that sends GPS coordinates to a database.
Based on the location of the jacket, a tweet is
crafted and published by a bot from a collection
of verified texts. These
tweets highlight tips on sustainability, engaging
both the user and followers on Twitter in active science and
advocacy.
Dr. Cairns explains, “The Green Jacket Project is designed to get people excited about sustainability. The project teaches about major environmental issues, and encourages students and the public
to think about major barriers to sustainability across several different sectors. The project
is also designed to bring awareness to a huge environmental problem that a lot of people don’t know about—apparel and textile waste, or waste from the Fashion industry. The Green Jacket bot, which we never would have been able to make
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