PROCESSORS

A group of Vanderbilt University researchers has received an $8.3 million grant from the university's Academic Venture Capital Fund to create a state-of-the-art supercomputer center on campus. A supercomputer is a computer that performs at or near the highest processing rate available, helping ''number crunchers'' do their work in a timely fashion, according to a Vanderbilt news release. The researchers who received the award believe ''high performance computation'' will become more and more important to professors in a variety of academic disciplines. The grant will pay for computer equipment and a training and outreach center designed to show researchers who are new to the technology what it has to offer. Leading the research team are Paul Sheldon, associate professor of physics; Jason Moore, Ingram Associate Professor of Cancer Research, and Ron Schrimpf, professor of electrical engineering. Sheriff's office gets grant The federal government has awarded nearly $85,000 to the Davidson County Sheriff's Office to help pay for housing undocumented criminal immigrants jailed here. It's part of the State Criminal Aliens Assistance Program. Sheriff Daron Hall had seen other cities in states such as Texas and Florida tap into this fund and decided Metro should do the same. It required finding out what information the federal government needed and finding a way to gather it. The agency submitted its application earlier this year and received $84,327 of the $243,227 awarded statewide. Nearly half of the sheriff's office's $50 million budget is offset by revenue such as grants, with an increase in those types of funds of about $1.6 million in the past year alone. SCAAP is administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, Department of Justice, in conjunction with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, United States Department of Homeland Security. Project to encourage exercise Nashville will get a $200,000 grant for a project to encourage residents to exercise and follow healthier lifestyles, Mayor Bill Purcell has announced. Called Music City Moves!, the project weds promotion of physical activity and community planning. ''It is an opportunity to further our efforts to enhance Nashville's neighborhoods, improve parks and greenways and build sidewalks that encourage healthy, active living,'' Purcell said Wednesday. The money comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Active Living by Design program, a $16.5 million national program to create and promote environments that make it safe and convenient to be more physically active. The program selected 25 partnerships across the nation to receive grants. The Metro departments of planning and public health, the Community Health and Wellness Team and Walk/Bike Nashville will review state and local policies associated with community health goals and evaluate alternative regulatory approaches that support active living. Donations needed for dinner The Uptown YMCA and WayFM radio are providing a Thanksgiving dinner for the urban poor and homeless community from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Downtown Presbyterian Church. Donations of traditional holiday dinner canned goods, such as green beans, potatoes, corn and yams, are needed. They can be dropped off at CoolSprings Galleria, Hickory Hollow Mall and RiverGate Mall, or at the security desk of the SunTrust Financial Center, 424 Church St. For more information, call Michelle Mattox at 251-5454. HCA to fund subdivision park HCA will announce today that its foundation has committed $200,000 for an 8-acre recreational park in a new Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity subdivision. The subdivision, which will have 141 homes, is on 43 acres at I-24 and Harding Place in the Paragon Mills area. The announcement will be made by Jack Bovender, HCA chairman and CEO, during a Community Land Development Awards program at Providence Park. Littlejohn Engineering Associates is designing the park on a pro-bono basis. The neighborhood park will feature nature trails, park benches, a playground, picnic area with a pavilion, and gardens. Site development for the subdivision began earlier this year.