MRI-R2: Acquisition of a Data Intensive Supercomputer for Innovative and Transformative Research in Science and Engineering

Suny At Buffalo, Amherst NY

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This Major Research Instrumentation-Recovery and Reinvestment (MRI-R2) award funds the acquisition of Data Intensive Supercomputer (DISC) at the University of Buffalo. The supercomputer provides transformative computing and data processing capability to approximately 250 immediate users involved in a wide range of innovative research and education activities. The substantial compute power, large memory, and fast storage is utilized to advance the immediate scientific goals of over 45 research groups throughout the Nation. The spectrum of research enabled by DISC can be classified into three broad themes: (i) data intensive computing, clustering, and datamining; (ii) simulation analytics, and (iii) the novel real-time simulation by data analytics. A vibrant multidisciplinary community is built around the new supercomputing infrastructure. Classes, tutorials, and workshops utilizing the new system are designed to engage undergraduates, graduates, postdoctoral fellows, scientists, and faculty within the local western New York area and nationally. The project team has a long history of successfully administering educational and outreach programs centered around high-performance computing. Many existing educational programs are impacted by this acquisition including: the Buffalo-area Engineering Awareness for Minorities (BEAM) enrichment program, the Eric Pitman Annual Summer Workshop in Computational Science, and Buffalo's "Mayor's Next Generation Scientists Program." Results from the studies enabled by the new equipment are disseminated by student and faculty presentations at regional and national meetings, and through publication in peer-reviewed journals.