MRI: Development of high-performance computing facility for gravitational-wave data analysis

激光干涉引力波天文台（Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory，LIGO）是一个由NSF资助的探测引力波的项目。该奖项支持增强型计算设施的设计、开发、建造、调试和运行，以搜索LIGO数据流中来自天体物理源和仪器异常的微弱信号。增强后的设施将（i）使用具有成本效益的高性能/价格选择，使威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校（UWM）的LIGO Tier-2中心的计算能力翻两番，（ii）使UWM的LIGO Tier-2中心的存储容量增加一倍以上，以及（iii）从LIGO层提供10千兆以太网连接-UWM的LIGO Tier-2中心可供LIGO科学合作组织的所有成员使用，包括本科生和研究生。研究活动将解决网络基础设施和引力物理学中的问题。增强的计算设施将允许对更广泛的信号进行更深入和更密集的搜索，并可能实现有史以来第一次直接探测引力波。该奖项下的仪器开发将对UWM和全国其他机构的本科生，研究生和博士后科学家的教育和培训产生重大影响。本科生将参与仪器开发和相关的研究计划，提供大规模分布式计算方面的特殊实践培训。通过开放科学网格也为非LIGO科学家提供了对这些计算设施的访问，从而增加了国家网络基础设施的科学研究。

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is an NSF-funded project to detect gravitational waves. This award supports the design, development, construction, commissioning and operation of an enhanced computational facility to search the LIGO data stream for weak signals from astrophysical sources and instrumental anomalies. The enhanced facilities will (i) quadruple the computational capacity of the LIGO Tier-2 center at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) using cost-effective, high performance/price choices, (ii) more than double the storage capacity of the LIGO Tier-2 center at UWM, and (iii) provide a 10 Gigabit Ethernet connection from the LIGO Tier-2 center at UWM to the campus backbone to remove communication bottlenecks from the LIGO Data Grid.The LIGO Tier-2 center at UWM is available to all members of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, including undergraduate and graduate students. Research activities will address issues in cyber-infrastructure and gravitational physics. The enhanced computational facilities will permit deeper and more intensive searches for a wider variety of signals, and may enable the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves. The instrument development under this award will have considerable impact on the education and training of undergraduates, graduate students and post-doctoral scientists at UWM and other institutions around the nation. Undergraduate students will be involved in both the instrument development and the associated research program providing exceptional hands-on training in large-scale distributed computing. Access to these computational facilities is also provided via the Open Science Grid for non-LIGO scientists thus adding to the national cyber-infrastructure for scientific research.