High Performance Computing for Faculty and Students at University of Houston - Downtown
Abstract
This proposal will launch a new phase of faculty and student access to high performance computing resources at University of Houston-Downtown for research, teaching and learning activities that span across many disciplines. Here, we propose investing $337,965 to set up a High Performance Computing (HPC) Cluster at University of Houston-Downtown (UHD). The cluster will comprise of approximately 180 computing nodes whose memory power range from 8GB to 512 GB and will have an initial total storage space of about 200 TB. Scientific research has shown that HPC systems are associated with large quantitative impact on research productivity even in non-computer science disciplines such as Chemistry, Engineering, Physics, Biology and even History. Other academic institutions in Houston (including the University of Houston Ð main campus, which is also another Minority and Hispanic serving institution) have a central hub that houses multiple high performance computing clusters that supports research projects by graduate students and faculty members. This leaves faculty at UHD with major disadvantage compared to their peers at other minority and Hispanic serving institutions. There is a need for high computing power for different research areas being conducted at UHD such as large scale computational genomics, computational geosciences, molecular dynamics simulation, parallelized computations, large scale analysis and visualization of biomedical and physiological data, and network security. Big data pipelines that use large volume of data from high-throughput instruments such as DNA-sequencers, imaging instruments etc. can be deployed efficiently and used in a HPC cluster. The HPC cluster will tremendously support these various research activities at UHD. UHD is undoubtedly committed to give every STEM student a high-impact educational experience while ensuring that they graduate with 21st century skills. Big Data has been emerging as an essential area of research and teaching in different disciplines of science and technology. STEM graduates will be more effective in their careers if they are prepared to use HPC tools during their college experience. Therefore, at UHD, the high performance computing resources will not be restricted only to research purposes, but will also be used extensively for teaching and learning purposes, hence making it accessible to students. Integration of usage of HPC tools in some of the already existing learning and teaching activities at UHD such as the MasterÕs program on data analytics, UHDÕs Houston PREP program to motivate high school students to embrace STEM fields, several computer science courses will tremendously enhance the STEM program. A HPC cluster will also spark creation of new teaching and learning activities such as formation of a new HPC student club, new course or workshops on HPC tools, and more interdisciplinary collaborations between different STEM disciplines. A central computing resource in the form a high computing cluster that hosts several data computation and storage units, software that support advance research, teaching, and learning at UHD will impact all students including the Hispanic and African-American students, who make up 60% of UHDÕs total enrollment. The effect will also ripple across the broader communities in Houston of which these students are a part of.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 12, 2017
- Source ID
- W911NF1610480
Entities
People
- Benjamin Soibam
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- University of Houston–Downtown