The use of computers creates many challenges as it expands the realm of the possible in scientific research and many of these challenges are common to researchers in different areas. The insights gained in one area may catalyze change and accelerate discovery in many others.

The goal of this cross-disciplinary workshop was to bring, together scientists from different areas to share their research and experiences of how computing has shaped their work, to provide new insights and to change what can be done in science. The focus was on the research, and the technologies that have made that research possible.

The Microsoft eScience Workshop at RENCI invited contributions from any area of eScience including:

• Modeling of natural systems
• Knowledge discovery and merging datasets
• Science data analysis, mining, and visualization
• Healthcare and biomedical informatics
• High performance computing in science
• Innovations in publishing scientific literature, results, and data
• The impact of eScience on teaching and learning
• Applying novel information technologies to disaster management
• Robotics in science
• Scientific challenges with no obvious computing solutions

Event Sponsorship
This event was held in partnership with The Renaissance Computing Institute, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Co-chairs for the workshop were Dan Reed, Director, The Renaissance Computing Institute, and Tony Hey, Corporate Vice President for External Research, Microsoft Corporation.

Workshop Outcomes
Around 260 eScience researchers attended over 50 presentations and viewed a poster session showcasing over 100 projects in areas as diverse as astronomy, malaria, and the use of GPUs for scientific computation. Feedback from the attendees was overwhelmingly positive, and the event also served as a venue for Microsoft groups to meet with researchers and discuss future collaborations.