The National Science Foundation has awarded a $127,478 grant to researchers at the College of Charleston to extend the development of their current software that supports studying the ages of geologic phenomena.
Computer Science visiting assistant professor Jim Bowring, the founder and principal investigator of the College’s NSF-funded Cyber Infrastructure and Development Lab (CIRDLES.org) is creating software that provides tools necessary for high-precision sequencing of earth history. This new extension to the software will dramatically expand the current user-base. The software handles all aspects of data reduction, analysis, reporting and archiving of geochemical data and is developed on a multi-year basis collaboratively with earth scientists. The software and the archived data are open source and free so that different labs and scientists can seamlessly share and compare information.
“This software will likely eliminate large sources of inter-laboratory bias and also serve as a teaching tool that illustrates clearly how raw data from mass spectrometers are converted into dates and uncertainties. “ says Bowring.
