Most students who walk through Norton past the displayed jewels of the Center for Computational Research wonder just what happens inside those rooms.
Despite the impressive aura of the CCR computer cluster, UB students are bringing the mysterious science it unlocks to a decidedly non-expert audience - high school students.
Recently, the center has developed a high school curriculum that introduces the emerging field of bioinformatics to local secondary schools.
"The goal of the program is to introduce (bioinformatics) to the teachers who introduce this to the students, and then we reach the whole school," said Thomas Furlani, co-director of the CCR.
Furlani said the new class originated from a two-week long summer program. CCR officials said they deemed the program a limited success because they wanted to reach more students than a two-week course would permit.
To expand the program's reach, the program was integrated in three local high schools beginning in summer 2003, mostly as an after school activity.
About 15 students from Kenmore's Mount St. Mary Academy, Buffalo's City Honors School and Orchard Park High School have joined the course, which is led by three UB undergraduate students involved in the bioinformatics program.
The course introduces a new angle in computer application to students whose computer use is often limited to word processing or basic programming, said Furlani.
He believes this introduction at an early age will help students who plan to pursue science fields in undergraduate and graduate work.
According to Dawn Riggie, principal at Mount St. Mary Academy, bioinformatics works to harness the immense problem-solving capabilities of computers, then apply those capabilities to problems in life sciences that would take the human mind significantly longer to solve.
"Bioinformatics is a mixture of mathematics and computational science used to solve problems in a scientific discipline," Riggie said.
"We teach them the ideas beyond the projects and the knowledge to do the project," said David Walia, a senior computer and electrical engineering major who is one of the UB students in charge of the class.
Four female students at Mount St. Mary Academy currently participate in the half-year credit course.
Mount St. Mary senior Jaclyn Shaw said the group has learned how to write computer programs that allow them to work with proteins and DNA structures.
Darcy Brown, another Mount St. Mary senior, said she had leaned toward pursuing an English degree in college next fall, but the program changed her mind.
"(The program) made science practical," said Brown.
"They absolutely love it," Riggie said. "It has opened a whole new world to them."
The new world especially important to Riggie and her all-female student body is one that breaks down stereotypes of women's inability to successfully implement the fields of mathematics and science.
"A lot of girls believe the stereotype. (The program) was a step into the real world - we can really do this," Brown said.
Bioinformatics also represents a new opportunity for UB and Western New York to develop a world-class reputation in groundbreaking research, Furlani said.
Established by Gov. George E. Pataki in 2001, the UB Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics is on the front line of this industry's growth.
Furlani emphasized why the new high school program is essential for UB.
"If we're to become a hot bed for bioinformatics research, you better have people to staff those jobs," he said.
