USD searches for funding for new supercomputer
The University of South Dakota’s supercomputer, an advanced research tool for professors and graduate students, will be replaced by early 2017.
Plans for a new campus supercomputer have been in the works since the South Dakota Board of Regents awarded USD with a $200,000 Research and Development Innovation grant.
The purchase will be a better, faster computer that will allow for more research opportunities and will be compatible with more types of software.
USD’s current supercomputer is used for research projects on molecular modeling, statistics and other experiments that aren’t possible in a classroom, Research Computing Manager Doug Jennewien said.
“We like to look at is as an instrument the scientists use,” he said.
The supercomputer is located in the University Data Center in Slagle Hall. It’s about the size of two refrigerators and is full of computers shaped like pizza boxes.
USD has been looking for funding for a new supercomputer over the past year, Jennewien said. He hopes they’ll be able to use the $200,000 grant to help get more grants for an ideal budget between $400,000 and $600,000.
The goal is to start designing a base model with a $200,000 budget, and then architect a model with any additional funding, Jennewien said. Purchasing will begin in mid-2016 and the computer will be implemented on campus in early 2017.
The new machine will be more user-friendly and offer many more research opportunities, Jennewien said.
When a new user gets an account with USD’s current supercomputer, he or she must learn how to work a system completely run by code, no browser, no help button and not even a mouse. The new computer will allow the IT department to install software to make the learning curve easier for new supercomputer users.
Wendi Sapp and Adam Erck are both USD graduate students that have been using the supercomputer regularly. Sapp has been using the supercomputer for about two and a half years and Erck three and a half.
“I use the supercomputer for everything I do, and wherever I end up in my career I will be doing the same thing,” Sapp said.
While the current system allows students to do research they normally couldn’t, there are still limitations. Sapp, for instance, has to use other government supercomputers for larger projects within her computational chemistry research.
“I’m excited for a new computer so I can do more in one place,” Sapp said.
Erck said he’s excited for more possibilities as well.
“Once you have more experience in an area you are always going to want to try more complicated things,” he said.
(Courtesy photo / The Volante)
