II-NEW: Acquisition of BCI - A Biomedical Computing Infrastructure

该项目的目标是获取和集成生物医学计算基础设施（BCI），该基础设施能够处理生物医学应用中生成的越来越高分辨率、大容量和高频数字内容。BCI将包括：一个基于NVIDIA处理器的大型特斯拉集群，具有双精度图形处理单元（gpu），以及一个基于NEC nehalem的多节点集群，通过Infiniband驱动特斯拉集群；大共享内存多核计算机节点；以及一个大型并行高性能固态磁盘场。智力优势：虽然并行计算和网格计算相对来说已经被很好地理解了，但有效地使用具有大内存的大规模多核gpu集群和快速磁盘访问的探索还很少。因此，BCI寻求促进在布法罗大学，纽约州立大学和罗斯威尔公园癌症研究所之间正在进行的生物医学研究项目中部署这种转型计算范式。这些项目涵盖了生物医学计算的各个领域，包括：虚拟手术和干预；图像分割和标记；计算机断层扫描和重建；成像生物标志物和计算机辅助诊断；到核分子成像。更广泛的影响：该BCI使一大群多学科研究人员能够在生物医学企业中释放数字内容的全部潜力，并实现从实验室到临床的更快、更可靠的科学转移。此外，还计划围绕BCI开展积极的传播和推广工作，包括课程、教程和讲习班，以吸引所有年龄段的学生和研究人员。这些活动中的许多构成了团队的基础？美国的推广工作，从高中暑期学院到会议研讨会，已经开始，门户网站记录了这些努力（http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~vipin/nsf/cri2009/）。

The goal of this project is to acquire and integrate Biomedical Computing Infrastructure (BCI) capable of processing the increasingly high-resolution, large-volume, and high-frequency digital content generated within biomedical applications. The BCI will comprise: a large NVIDIA processor-based Tesla cluster with double precision Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) along with a multi-node NEC Nehalem-based cluster to drive the Tesla cluster via Infiniband; large shared memory multi-core computer nodes; and a large parallel high-performance solid-state disk farm. Intellectual Merit: While parallel- and grid-computing is relatively well understood, effective use of a cluster of massively multi-core GPUs with large memory, and fast disk access has as yet been minimally explored. Thus, the BCI seeks to facilitate deployment of this transformational computational paradigm in ongoing biomedical research projects between the University at Buffalo, SUNY and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. These projects encompass the gamut of biomedical computing from: virtual surgery and intervention; image segmentation and labeling; computer tomography and reconstruction; imaging biomarkers and computer-aided diagnosis; to nuclear molecular imaging.Broader Impact: This BCI empowers a large group of multidisciplinary researchers to unlock the full potential of the digital content in the biomedical enterprise as well as attain faster and more reliable transfer of science from the lab to the clinic. In addition, a vibrant dissemination and outreach effort has been planned around the BCI, involving classes, tutorials and workshops, to engage students and researchers of all ages. Many of these activities forming the foundation of the team?s outreach efforts, ranging from the high-school summer institutes to conference workshops, have already been initiated and the web-portal documents these efforts (http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~vipin/nsf/cri2009/).