MRI-R2: Acquisition of a High Performance Computing cluster with a fast interconnect to enable shared-use, college-wide computational investigations at Hamilton College

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。汉密尔顿学院的Adam Van Wynsberghe、Chang-Jen Chang、Natalia V.Connolly和Nathan Goodale将获得并运营一个高性能的Beowulf式计算集群，该奖项来自重大研究与仪器(MRI)计划。这一计算集群将使化学、物理、生物学和人类学系的教员能够在他们的研究实验室和教室中使用尖端计算技术。将要调查的研究项目包括真核生物生命树的研究、暗能量研究的新工具的开发、红外星系的研究、核糖核酸酶催化作用的检测以及流感神经氨酸酶抑制剂的调查。计算集群是一组相互连接的计算机，它们协同工作，实现比单独机器更强大的计算能力。这些集群使解决分子动力学模拟和统计分析等领域的复杂问题成为可能，这些领域需要广泛的计算能力。该奖项提供的计算基础设施将用于复杂的研究项目和各种学科的课程，向汉密尔顿学院的无数本科生介绍科学计算。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). With this award from the Major Research and Instrumentation (MRI) program, Adam Van Wynsberghe, Wei-Jen Chang, Natalia V. Connolly and Nathan Goodale of Hamilton College will acquire and operate a high-performance Beowulf-style computing cluster. This computing cluster will enable faculty in the departments of chemistry, physics, biology and anthropology to employ cutting edge computational technology in their research labs and classrooms. Research projects to be investigated include studies of the eukaryote tree of life, development of new tools for the study of dark energy, studies of infrared galaxies, examination of ribonuclease catalysis and a survey of influenza neuraminidase inhibitors.A computing cluster is a group of linked computers that work in concert to achieve vastly more computational power than the individual machines. These clusters make it possible to solve complex problems in areas such as molecular dynamics simulations and statistical analysis that require extensive computational power. The computational infrastructure made available by this award will be used in sophisticated research projects and in courses across a variety of disciplines introducing numerous undergraduate students at Hamilton College to scientific computing.