Story by Judy Holmes and Mark Owczarski
jlholmes@syr.edu or maowczar@syr.edu
Phone: 443-3784
Story ran in the April 6, 1998 Syracuse Record

 The story of the Center for Really Neat Research begins with David J. Warner, SU's Northeast Parallel Architectures Center (NPAC) Nason Fellow. With the encouragement of NPAC Director Geoffrey Fox, Warner moved his laboratory to SU in 1996.

 Before coming to Syracuse, Warner had developed an international reputation for the work he was doing with children with disabilities at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California. He frequently spoke at conferences across the country, including two in Syracuse, in 1993 and 1995. While here, he met Fox and physics professor Edward Lipson, who would later become a principal collaborator in the CRNR.

 "Syracuse University gave me the opportunity to institutionalize the methodology of how you think about computer interface technology, how you think about the problems in a realistic and practical manner, and how you can help real people with real needs," Warner says. "Geoffrey Fox was one of the few people who truly comprehended what I was doing. He said, `Come to SU and do something interesting.'"

 When he arrived on campus, Warner teamed up with Lipson, and the two went "trolling" for the best and brightest SU had to offer. They found Yuh-Jye Chang, a doctoral student in programming theory at the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science and 1996 Java Cup award winner. They found Rahul Panesar, an NPAC research assistant who helped build the CRNR research laboratory. And they found industrial design students in the College of Visual and Performing Arts to help build "widgits."

 The primary goal of the Center for Really Neat Research is to make computer technology accessible and affordable for people with severe disabilities. However, members are now applying their new technologies to the rapidly growing field of telemedicine and to elementary and high school educational programs.

 In this issue and the next three issues, the Syracuse Record offers an in-depth look at the research, teaching and community outreach programs taking place at the CRNR. Stories on technological developments and community outreach are featured in this issue. Other stories will examine the center's cyber culture, an Earth Day-oriented teaching project on the World Wide Web, and research projects focusing on education and telemedicine.

 Interested readers can also surf the center's Web site at http://www.pulsar.org .