MRI: Acquisition of a High-Performance Computing Cluster for the Interdisciplinary Research in Computational and Integrative Biology

这项主要研究仪器（MRI）赠款提供资金，以获得高性能计算集群，以支持罗格斯大学卡姆登（RUC）新成立的计算和综合生物学中心（CCIB）的计算生物学和附属研究。CCIB汇集了来自生物学，数学，计算机科学，物理学和化学系的跨学科教师小组，以及一些计算密集型，数据驱动的项目。这项拟议的收购将有助于并大大提高CCIB项目的计算能力，影响RUC多达20个实验室的计算和实验研究工作。该集群将为一个大型多部门项目提供动力，该项目的重点是开发一个通用计算平台，用于网络和路径的多用途建模，并将大大促进以下方面的研究：（a）生物有机体中复杂身体模式的发展如何受到控制;（B）生物节律和时钟的机制;（c）正常发生的随机波动（噪音）如何增强生物信号;该计算集群将大大加强中国人民大学CCIB的一个新的跨学科研究生项目，并将作为Q-STEP的一部分，大力促进跨学科课程的发展，Q-STEP是一个创新的NSF计划，旨在增加在中国人民大学完成科学和数学学位的本科生人数。因此，国家的最先进的设施将形成一个广泛的计算培训的一个组成部分，约20名博士和60名硕士研究生的CCIB将在未来六年内注册，并为硕士学生在现有的RUC计划。此次收购所实现的研究和教育项目将有助于RUC的使命，即吸引新泽西州卡姆登贫困城区的周边社区。RUC计划最近在增加本科科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）学科中代表性不足的人口中有才华的学生的参与方面取得了显着的成功，这将使CCIB能够从这些人口中招募特别有才华的学生。 CCIB将大力鼓励研究生参与当地社区的长期推广计划。拟议的管理计划设想为外部用户提供进入群集的机会。为少数民族服务的组织，以及研究机构和工业合作伙伴，特别是与CCIB合作的初创企业，将得到优先考虑。计算集群将使CCIB能够扩大和加强与该地区其他研究和医疗机构的合作，有助于在新泽西南部建立一个生命科学和生物医学研究的区域热点，刺激生物技术产业，并增加新泽西南部及其附近地区（宾夕法尼亚州和特拉华州）居民的就业机会。

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant provides funding to acquire a high-performance computing cluster to support computational biology and affiliated research in the newly formed Center for Computational and Integrative Biology (CCIB) at Rutgers University-Camden (RUC). The CCIB brings together an inter-disciplinary group of faculty from the departments of Biology, Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, and Chemistry, with a number of compute-intensive, data-driven projects. This proposed acquisition will contribute to, and substantially improve, the computing power available to CCIB projects, affecting both computational and experimental research efforts in up to 20 laboratories at RUC. The cluster will power a large multi-departmental project focused on the development of a common computational platform for multi-purpose modeling of networks and pathways and will significantly facilitate research on (a) how the development of complex body patterns in biological organisms is controlled; (b) mechanisms of biological rhythms and clocks; (c) how normally-occurring random fluctuations (noise) can enhance biological signaling; (d) analysis of biological images and (e) mining the rapidly expanding world store of genomic data.The computing cluster will significantly strengthen a new interdisciplinary graduate program in CCIB at RUC, and will also strongly contribute to inter-disciplinary curricular development as part of Q-STEP, an innovative NSF program designed to increase the numbers undergraduates completing degrees in the sciences and mathematics at RUC. The state-of-the-art facility will thus form an integral component of extensive computational training for some 20 doctoral and 60 Masters students of CCIB to be enrolled over the next six years, and for Masters students in the existing RUC programs. The research and educational projects enabled by this acquisition will contribute to the mission of RUC to engage the surrounding community the impoverished urban area of Camden, NJ. The remarkable recent success of RUC programs in increasing participation of talented students from populations underrepresented in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines will allow CCIB to recruit exceptionally talented students from those populations. The CCIB will strongly encourage the participation of graduate students in a long-running outreach program to the local community. The proposed management plan foresees providing access to the cluster for external users. Minority-serving organizations, as well as research institutions and industrial partners, particularly start-ups collaborating with the CCIB, will be given preference. The computing cluster will enable CCIB to broaden and strengthen collaborations with other research and medical institutions in the area, contributing to the creation of a regional hotspot in southern New Jersey for life science and biomedical research, stimulating the biotechnology industry, and enhancing employment opportunities for the residents of southern New Jersey and its vicinity (Pennsylvania and Delaware).