Scientific research is often a game of strategy, with research teams constantly devising new ways to outmaneuver the challenges that inhibit their progress. Every new tool, every improved process is a chance to gain a competitive advantage. Algorithms that can better analyze field data, codes that promise to speed up the analysis of datasets, new visualization techniques—all are eagerly put to the test. Cancer researchers, for example, covet tools and techniques that can help them deal with large volumes of data from human subjects. The best of these tools become part of the best strategies and methods used to help medical science get a competitive edge on a formidable opponent: cancer.

The research team led by Kenneth Watkin at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is typical of cancer research teams. Watkin, a U of I professor of medicine and applied life studies, is one of two principal investigators on a project that aims to understand the content of ultrasonic images taken of tissue in cancer patients. His co-PI is Tanya Gallagher, dean of the U of I College of Applied Life Studies. Watkin realized he needed more computing power to analyze his group's research data, so he began looking for solutions—a tool or a process that could cut the team's computing time. When he turned to NCSA and learned that the center's Origin2000 supercomputer could meet his data analysis challenges, he seized the opportunity.

"When we started our work, we were using an 800 MHz desktop computer, and it took at least several hours to process one ultrasonic image," says Watkin. "We needed to process 400 to 600 images a year, and there was just no way we were going to accomplish that. We needed something faster-something that could process medical images at very high speeds."

Help came in the form of Faisal Saied and Sirpa Saarinen in NCSA's Performance Engineering group. They developed a parallel version of the team's algorithm that analyzes textures in ultrasonic images and ported it to the Origin2000. The researchers received an allotment of time on the Origin2000 and now, a five- to six-hour computing and imaging process can be completed in about five minutes. The collaboration, says Watkin, means he is free to concentrate on the science of his research, knowing that the computational aspects are being handled.

Access Online | Posted 1-30-2001