The Center for Interdisciplinary Computation (CISC) is devoted to the development and use of computational methods for scientific discovery in all branches of the sciences and engineering disciplines.
The Center for Interdisciplinary Scientific Computation (CISC) promotes transformative, research and education through
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- Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration across academic units in scientific computation,
- Strengthening external research funding,
- Expanding the scientific computation community through education, training and support for students, creating and sustaining a diverse and inclusive environment,
- Partnering in mutually beneficial ways with external organizations, and
- Enhancing the university computing research infrastructure.
After extensive planning and strategic faculty hiring, the Center was approved by Illinois Tech in May 2017. Fred J. Hickernell was the founding director.
Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Scientific Computation (CISC)
Maggie Cheng is the Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Scientific Computation (CISC) and Professor of Applied Mathematics. Her research is in the overlapping area between network science and data science. It involves using statistical methods to uncover hidden patterns in measurements and infer causal relationships, and leveraging big data to predict the system behavior and structural evolution over time. A major focus is time-evolving complex networks analysis including anomaly detection and network state inference. A major application of it is real-time fault detection and diagnosis in cyber-physical systems.
Cheng’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation. Her research group has collaborated with scientists from other academic institutions and national labs. She is currently serving on the editorial board of IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics.
Associate Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Scientific Computation (CISC)
David Minh is the Associate Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Scientific Computation (CISC) and an Assistant Professor of Chemistry. His research focuses on developing and applying computational methods for studying noncovalent interactions between proteins and small organic molecules. These types of interactions are essential for biological functions such as signal transduction and to the mechanism of most pharmaceuticals. His group is developing new algorithms to predict the strength of these interactions based on implicit ligand theory, a new theoretical framework for making these predictions that he published in 2012.
Minh’s research is funded by the National Institutes of Health. His group actively collaborates with several groups at IIT and at other U.S. institutions. Minh received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of California, San Diego, and his B.A. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.