The UNC-BMElab A Bayesian Maximum Entropy Lab For Space/Time Geostatistics In Exposure, Disease and Risk Mapping at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The UNC-BMElab
Room 14, Rosenau Hall
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering
School of Public Health
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

BMElab director: Marc Serre

People Projects Studies Tech. reports BME courses BME publications Job Opening
Software : BMElib BMEGUI MNPcalculator

The BMElab at the University of North Carolina

The BMElab is a research group at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill dedicated to the numerical development of the Bayesian Maximum Entropy Method of modern Geostatistics, and its application to exposure, disease and risk mapping. The BMElab provides advanced visualization and computational capabilities for research in space/time Geostatistics under the direction of Marc Serre.

The research at the BMElab is organized around 4 main themes: concepts, mathematical tools, computer programs, and applications. The computer programs developed include the well-known BMElib package of spatiotemporal Geostatistics used worldwide by scientists and researchers in over 30 different countries. The applications include mapping of environmental pollutants such as lead, particulate matter, arsenic, ozone, etc., as well as human exposure and health risk assessment, and disease mapping.

A brief tour of the lab

The BMElab is currently located in room 14 in the basement of Rosenau Hall. The BMElab features a large computational lab with state of the art computational facilities for many BMElab researchers. The BMElab has both local workstations with space for several researchers, as well as high performance computing access on the UNC computational facilities. These computational facilities include 10 local PC workstations, 3 printers, advanced software for spatial modeling including arcGIS, MATLAB, etc., access to the STATapps computer server comprised of 20 processors (of type 1.05 GHz Sun E15K) and 40 GB RAM, access to Macintosh, Linux and UNIX boxes for operating system maintenance, and a Sony 42" flat panel plasma monitor for visual display.

A large variety of scientific software titles is available courtesy to the campus-wide support of the UNC Academic Technology and Networks (ATN). The BMElab computers also allow access the UNC Information Technology Services (ITS) to perform more specialized tasks in scientific, statistical, and bioscience computing (e.g., so as to perform parallel computing tasks, etc.).

Throughout the room there exist fast Ethernet network sockets able to provide network access to up to 16 computers, making it easy for visiting researchers to connect their personal laptops to the internet.

---