II-NEW: Southern Illinois HPC Infrastructure (SIHPCI)

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This project involves the building of a high-performance computing and data storage infrastructure at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIHPSI - Southern Illinois HPC Infrastructure), a facility first-of-its-kind not only within the campus but in the greater Southern Illinois region also. Intellectual Merit: Research activities using SIHCPI encompass two broad areas - (1) Computational Nanoscience and Engineering (CNE): Examples include multimillion atom simulations of nanodevices, design of molecular catalysts, studies of polymer morphology at interfaces, fundamental studies of the driving mechanisms in non-equilibrium states of matter, and quantum information processing exploring new properties of atomic nuclei; and (2) Geographic Information Science (GIS): Involves strategic research to investigate new algorithms for representation and transformation of massive dynamic data allowing a cognitive and visual interpretation for analysts by exploiting invariant geometric properties. SIHPSI serves as a nucleation center for further addition of HPC resources and offers SIUC?s faculty members a much quicker time frame (1-2 weeks) to start computing as compared to a custom cluster configuration which usually takes about 6 months from start to production. Broader Impact: Research in the CNE area is expected to have significant impact in a wide range of technological applications including low-power and fast transistors, coatings, lithography, adhesives to light emitting diodes and sensors, various smart and functionalized materials, and quantum computation. The GIS research facilitates efficient data streaming, crime and health studies, medical imaging, and genome mapping. SIHPSI has an educational interface that supports ? (1) revamping several courses in the area of scientific modeling and numerical analysis; (2) developing a new course on computational nanoelectronics; and (3) training (through summer workshops) a diverse community of college teachers as well as K-12 students in the field of scientific computing and data analysis. Materials/modules developed in the teaching/training activities will be posted on NSF?s nanoHUB.org for use by the broader community.