For its second-phase National Science Foundation-funded Center for Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST), Florida International University (FIU) refined its research focus to establish the Center for Innovative Information Systems Engineering. In addition to its core mission of excellence in multidisciplinary research, the FIU CREST serves as a resource center for the education of underrepresented minority students as well as a driving force to increase diversity in graduate education, especially at the Ph.D. level in computer science and engineering.

The Center is pursuing four major research subprojects.

1. Effective Access to Complex Multimodal Data with Applications in Disaster Mitigation focuses on developing effective techniques for managing and providing access to a variety of data types. Among its applications, it seeks to develop techniques to get the right information to the right people at the right time, thereby helping to mitigate disasters and to recover from them quickly. As a first step toward technologies, FIU is developing the Business Continuity Information Network (BCIN, pronounced "bee-kin") test-bed, a web-based service where local businesses, county emergency management, and organizations that assist businesses can gather to share critical information and support continuity efforts before, during and after a disaster.
   
   
2. Integrated Approach to Information Processing in Neuroscience focuses on an integrated imaging/signal processing approach that will result in comprehensive views of the human brain in greater depth and detail through faster, affordable, more effective, and less invasive methods. Our vision is to establish a multidisciplinary research platform for our researchers and scientists to develop their creative thinking in the information processing field (image and signal) with practical implications to neuroscience in a multidimensional world, integrating spatial and time coordinates with the different sensory modalities that are brought in synergy.
   
   
3. Human Computer Interaction for Universal Access, has a long-term goal to contribute research towards the broader long-term goal of Universal Access to information technology, which will have critical societal importance in the near future, as it strives to enable anyone, anywhere, anytime to efficiently access the information technology fabric of our society, regardless of the user's disability status, choice of platform or interaction environment.
   
   
4. Complex System Modeling, Analysis, and Realization is targeted to achieve research goals outlined in several recent NSF research initiatives. This Subproject will conduct research seeking to improve the state of the art of effectively abstracting, capturing, analyzing, and simulating the underlying behavioral models of complex real-world systems. The research addresses major research issues in several emerging computing paradigms including multiple agent systems (MAS) and scientific workflows (SWF), and will contribute to the worldwide research effort on building highly dependable software systems.

By intertwining these multidisciplinary research goals with CREST's comprehensive education environment and by leveraging synergistic academic and industry partnerships, the Subprojects provide one another with strong impetus for cohesiveness and potential for new research findings and educational breakthroughs. Pete Martinez, Chairman of the Florida Research Consortium, states that "[b]y applying its research to themes critical to the State of Florida, such as disaster management, healthcare for our diverse population, and universal access to information systems, we believe that the Center will enable technology creation that will help keep the United States and Florida competitive..."

Our experiences in the first-phase CREST, in our other funded projects, and in our collaborations such as LA Grid and our NSF-funded PIRE grant have made us critically aware of the challenges of training and involving the next generation of diverse students in research in critical societal areas. CREST is increasing FIU's research capacity and competitiveness, directly relates to its goal of becoming one of the Nation's top urban research institutions by its 50th year, 2015.

CREST HRD Joint Annual Meeting 2009