MRI:"Acquisition" of Rice Computational Research Cluster (RCRC)

这个项目收购了一个大规模(512个处理器)的Linux计算集群，为计算密集型研究和教育项目提供了一个研究工具，这些项目可以帮助增进不同领域的知识和理解，同时支持系统和编译器、多尺度计算生物学、生物物理学、生物工程、地球科学和心理学方面的技术。这种先进的高性能计算仪器与32名研究人员和50个NSF资助的项目共享兆级计算能力的好处，还促进了工具构建团队和科学计算团队在生物计算、地球动力学和磁共振分析方面的跨学科合作。软件工具构建解决了动态网站的性能问题、缓存和集群方案，并设计了改进的TCP/IP接口。消除了对不同部门中许多单独的自组织集群的需要，集群服务于以下具体的计算研究项目：*研究异质网格系统的软件和性能问题。*具有动态内容的网站的缓存和集群方案，*为集群计算设计改进的TCP/IP接口，*多尺度计算生物学、生物物理学和生物工程，*组织、细胞和细胞群体的建模，*植入式血泵中流动和溶血的建模，*计算机辅助药物发现，*PDE约束优化的算法，*大规模数值线性代数的新算法，*使用计算流体动力学来模拟地幔中的热对流，*地球过程的粒子动力学模拟，*多尺度地震模拟，*功能磁共振(FMRI)数据的分析，*脑电和ERP信号的源建模，以及*视觉理想观察者的建模。广泛的影响：该设施惠及100多名博士生、50名本科生和30名博士后研究员，并直接影响32名研究人员。将在本科生和研究生一级的课堂上使用，也将通过现有的联盟活动(AGEP：研究生教育和教授联盟和“与科学家共度夏天”外联计划)用作招聘工具。此外，这项工作非常重视跨学科的学习、交流和互动。

This project, acquiring a large scale (512 processors) Linux computational cluster, provides a research instrument for computing intensive research and education projects that can help advance knowledge and understanding in a diversity of fields, while enabling technologies in systems and compilers, multiscale computational biology, biophysics, bioengineering, earth sciences, and psychology. Sharing benefits of terascale computational power with 32 investigators and 50 NSF-funded projects, this advanced high performance computing instrument, also promotes cross-disciplinary collaboration between tool-building teams and scientific computing teams in bio-computing, geodynamics, and magnetic resonance analysis. Software tool-building addresses performance issues, caching and clustering schemes for dynamic web sites, and designing improved TCP/IP interfaces. Eliminating the need for many, separate ad-hoc clusters in different departments, the cluster services, among others, the following specific computational research projects:* Studying software and performance issues for heterogeneous Grid systems.* Caching and clustering schemes for web sites with dynamic content,* Designing improved TCP/IP interfaces for cluster computing,* Multiscale computational biology, biophysics, and bioengineering,* Modeling of tissues, cells, and cell populations,* Modeling of flow and hemolysis in implantable blood pumps,* Computer-aided drug discovery,* Algorithms for PDE constrained optimization,* Novel algorithms for large-scale numerical linear algebra,* Using computational fluid dynamics to model thermal convection in the Earth's mantle,* Particle dynamic simulations of earth processes,* Multiscale seismological simulation,* Analysis of functional MRI (fMRI) data,* Source modeling of EEG and ERP signals, and* Modeling of visual ideal observers.Broader Impact: The facility, benefiting more than 100 PhD students, 50 undergraduates, and 30 Postdoctoral fellows, and directly impacting 32 investigators, will be used in classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels and also as a recruiting tool through existing alliance activity (AGEP: Alliance for the Graduate Education and the Professoriate and a "Spend a Summer with a Scientist" outreach program). Furthermore, the work exhibits strong emphasis on learning, communication, and interaction across disciplines.