INDUSTRY

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) today announced that State Farm, the Bloomington, Illinois-based insurer that services more than 71 million policies in the United States and Canada, is the center's newest Private Sector Partner. "We see this as a unique opportunity to collaborate with leading researchers in developing business applications of cutting-edge computational technology," said State Farm spokesperson, Dick Luedke. "Our relationship with NCSA will provide benefits to our customers by helping us to turn data into decisions, and by facilitating the innovation of the echnologies we rely on to deliver premier customer service." NCSA's Private Sector Partner Program puts the center's expertise and technological innovation to work on the real-world challenges faced by industry, while enabling companies to reap the benefits of early access to breakthrough technologies. "NCSA offers bleeding-edge technology that can be configured to fit our industrial partners' needs," said Brian Kucic, interim director of NCSA's Private Sector Program. "State Farm's presence in the University's Research Park offers a terrific environment for personal interaction between NCSA and State Farm staff members." In addition to State Farm, NCSA's partners include Abaqus, ACNielsen, Boeing Phantom Works, Caterpillar, Dell, Exxon Mobil, IBM, John Deere, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Microsoft, Motorola Labs, and the Research Triangle Institute. More information about NCSA's Private Sector Program is available online (http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/AboutUs/Directorates/psp.html) or by contacting program director Brian Kucic (bkucic@ncsa.uiuc.edu or 217-333-0926).