The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at Illinois was invited to join Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, state legislators and agency leaders for the signing of HB-5611, which formally created the Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT).
NCSA partnered on DoIT’s Smart State Initiative to begin bringing together next-generation technology and highly-skilled expertise to improve quality of life, grow the state's economy and attract residents.
NCSA Director Dr William ‘Bill’ Gropp spoke at the bill signing which took place at the new DoIT innovation Center in the Thompson Center in Chicago.
‘Every day for the past 30 years, NCSA has partnered with visionaries to discover solutions to grand challenges for the benefit of science and society,’ said Gropp. ‘Our advanced digital resources and world-class staff push research in big data beyond the unimaginable. Last year, the State of Illinois and NCSA partnered on the Smart State initiative to do just that in the areas of large-scale data capabilities and cybersecurity.’
The establishment of the DoIT will allow the State of Illinois to maintain a space on the cutting edge of big data research.
‘We congratulate the State of Illinois on the signing of this bill and we look forward to leveraging this new department's vision and NCSA's innovative resources to modernize Illinois' infrastructure to better serve the citizens of Illinois and uplift the state's economy.’
