National Center for Supercomputing Applications - NCSA

Summer isn't slow at NCSA, but we are taking some time to reflect on the incredible achievements of our student researchers, mentors and industry partners who help make innovation possible.

This spring, our students successfully hosted the 4th Annual NCSA Student Research Conference, showcasing cutting-edge research and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. A special thank you to the student organizing committee, including conference co-chairs Sirapop Umnakkittikul (Mig) and Adaora Mbanefo!

We were also honored to welcome distinguished industry participants who shared their expertise and perspectives with our students:
Howie Liu, Cerebras Systems
William Eustis, Jump Trading
Matt Ahrens, NVIDIA
Steve Baker, Rivian

Their engagement highlights the powerful connections between academic research and industry production.

One final congratulations to our 2025-26 Outstanding SPIN Students:
Tia Kashyap
Amul Prakash
Emma M.
Anvesha Saraf
Martin Xu
Anirudh Sunil
Chinmay Rawat
Ivan Tang
Jia Gill
Ketaki Gokhale
Mingqian Wang

And a huge thank you to our 2025-26 Outstanding SPIN Mentors:
Joshua Allen
Grant Merz
Michael Miller
Rini B. Mehta
Halil Kilicoglu
Mohamad Alipour

NCSA is excited to welcome 20 new SPIN interns, nine REU FoDoMMat students and two international research interns this summer, who'll contribute to a variety of research projects spanning AI, data science, computing, digital humanities, engineering and more.

Summer 2026 REU projects: https://reu.ncsa.illinois.edu/current-projects/
Summer 2026 SPIN projects: https://spin.ncsa.illinois.edu/internships/26-summer-mentors/

Researchers from NCSA's Genomics Group and the University of Illinois Chicago recently published a paper in the Journal of Open Source Software detailing the improvements made to the NExt-generation sequencing Analysis Toolkit (NEAT), an open-source Python package that creates simulated sequencing datasets. The updates increased speed, accuracy and usability while enhancing short-read sequencing simulation in research.

Read more and check out the NEAT source code available on GitHub!

Enhancing short-read sequencing simulation: Updates to NEAT Allen et al., (2026). Enhancing short-read sequencing simulation: Updates to NEAT. Journal of Open Source Software, 11(121), 9056, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.09056

NCSA researchers hosted an innovative workshop series to make high-performance computing education more accessible for practitioners with disabilities and the broader research community.

Led by Omar Khan, a graduate research assistant at NCSA, and JooYoung Seo, an assistant professor at the School of Information Sciences at Illinois at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and NCSA faculty affiliate, the workshop emerged from a recognized gap in accessible educational resources for HPC systems. While prior efforts have explored how learners conceptualize HPC environments, there has been limited work examining how to make HPC education accessible.

Learn more about their research in this story!

https://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/2026/06/08/ncsas-delta-brings-accessibility-to-hpc/

No experience necessary. Just bring your curiosity. Illinois Computes can help students navigate daunting technical resources and learn essential computing skills.

Take Prof. Benjamin Van Doren’s “data skills” course in the Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences at Illinois. We dropped in on a class, and the grad students left with hands-on experience using R – a programming language that’s popular in statistics-based research and data analytics – on our Research Notebooks. In a matter of hours, they had a new tool in their toolbox and a look at important resources they’ll use throughout their careers.

We're ready to help your students get started. computes.illinois.edu

From Image to Diagnosis in Milliseconds - Access A collaboration of researchers from around the country used their ACCESS allocation on NCSA’s DeltaAI to help develop a dataset to improve prostate cancer detection.

“I write with enthusiasm – maybe even delirium – on how successful this project has been.” Prof. Jacob Sherkow, College of Law and Carle Illinois College of Medicine

When Jacob Sherkow wanted to analyze years’ worth of documents from federal patent trials and appeals, Illinois Computes built the tools to make it happen, including an AI-powered chatbot that lets anyone ask questions and get instant answers.

When he showed colleagues at Stanford? “They were green with envy.”

Ready to make your colleagues jealous? Contact Illinois Computes today. computes.illinois.edu

Congratulations to the Mechanical Science and Engineering at Illinois research team, including NCSA Cyber Security Research Specialist Phuong Cao, for its work on KNEESENSE, a low-cost, wearable wireless system designed to monitor the human knee during rehabilitation.

Researchers develop novel wearable knee rehabilitation device in international collaboration An international team that includes MechSE Prof. Liz Hsiao-Wecksler has developed KNEESENSE, a device that uses a custom-designed wearable hydraulic filament sensor (WHFS) to monitor the angle of the knee joint during real-time rehabilitation work. The project is supported by the VinUni-Illinois Sma...

Researchers from Yale University are using NCSA’s Delta supercomputer to build AI tools to decode individual genetic blueprints and map gene interactions in tissue over time. Learn how the team's efforts have enhanced the performance of gene expression prediction models.

This research was made possible through an allocation from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support (ACCESS) program.

https://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/2026/05/26/new-frontiers-in-precision-medicine/

Data can tell us a lot about people, history, and healing.

Professor LaKisha Tawanda David's genetic genealogy project uses genomic technology to support restorative justice and cultural reclamation for African American communities. Illinois Computes has been a partner at every level, from accelerating the development of her data pipeline to designing user interfaces that make the research more accessible for participants.

In Prof. David's words: “The synergy between our project team and Illinois Computes has accelerated the development of our genetic genealogy reconstruction pipeline...Illinois Computes is playing an instrumental role in our efforts to harness genomic technology for restorative justice and cultural reclamation.”

Ready to find out how research computing can support your work? Contact Illinois Computes today! computes.illinois.edu

Not sure where to start with research computing? That’s why we’re here.

Illinois Computes offers:

🔸 No-cost computing & storage resources
🔹 One-on-one services tailored to your needs
🔸 Expert staff support & project evaluations
🔹 Training to build your computing skills

Reach out at computes.illinois.edu and accelerate your research today.