MRI: Development of an Instrument for Deep Learning Research

该项目将开发和部署一种用于加速伊利诺伊大学(UI)深度学习研究的新型工具。该仪器将把最新的计算、存储和互联技术集成到一个专门构建的共享使用系统中。该仪器将为极端数据密集型新兴研究领域提供前所未有的性能水平，在计算机视觉、自然语言处理、人工智能、医疗保健和教育等多个领域产生深远影响。仪器开发将由用户界面深度学习(DL)社区需求驱动，并将与IBM和NVIDIA合作进行。该仪器将成为伊利诺伊大学快速发展的数字图书馆研究社区的焦点，支持扩展大学的几个研究项目，并为STEM教育和培训做出贡献。具体地说，拟议的仪器是为从事深度学习的研究社区和行业开发的一项影响深远的网络基础设施开发。这项工作将产生一种先进的高性能可扩展工具，其能力远远超过目前部署在学术界或行业中的能力，以应对大规模深度学习项目。该仪器将作为社区驱动的努力的焦点，以推动数字图书馆领域的发展，整合计算机科学家、系统工程师和软件开发人员的工作。这个项目在系统架构和领域科学领域都具有变革性，它将灌输新的知识，通过作为这一努力的一部分而出现的新的互动和协同作用来发展新的知识。拟议开发的这一整合良好的工具将提高质量，扩大研究和培训的范围，在许多学科之间提供组织间和组织内的使用，并吸引私营部门合作伙伴。这项工作将通过向公众提供仪器的新颖系统架构的蓝图，对未来用于计算和数据密集型应用的计算机架构产生深远而持久的影响。通过该项目开发的高性能软件的使用将有助于许多利用数字图书馆框架的科学领域。许多应用程序前所未有的计算能力将使其有可能处理从教育、医疗保健到人工智能(AI)等许多重要领域的复杂科学、工程和社会问题。该项目将努力吸纳来自少数族裔和女性学生的参与者，以取得新的发现，培训和教育新一代熟练掌握数字图书馆工具和方法的用户，为培养一支受过高等教育、多样化、具有专门技能的劳动力队伍做出贡献。最后，这项工作将使新的产学研合作受益于全国科学界和产业界。

This project will develop and deploy a novel instrument for accelerating deep learning research at the University of Illinois (UI). The instrument will integrate the latest computing, storage, and interconnect technologies in a purpose-built shared-use system. This Instrument will deliver unprecedented performance levels for extreme data intensive emerging fields of research with far-reaching impacts in many areas, such as computer vision, natural language processing, artificial intelligence, healthcare and education. The instrument development will be driven by the UI deep learning (DL) community needs and will be carried out in collaboration with IBM and Nvidia. The instrument will serve as a focal point for the rapidly growing DL research community at UI, enable expansion of several research programs at UI, and contribute to STEM education and training.Specifically, the proposed instrument is a far-reaching cyberinfrastructure development for the research community and industry engaged with deep learning. The work will result in an advanced high-performing scalable instrument with capabilities far beyond those currently deployed in academia or industry to tackle large-scale deep learning projects. This instrument will serve as a focal point for a community-driven effort to advance the field of DL, integrating the work of computer scientists, systems engineers, and software developers. This project is transformative both in the systems architecture and domain science fields it will imbue, with new knowledge to be developed via new interactions and synergies that will emerge as part of this effort.The proposed development of this well-integrated instrument will improve the quality and expand the scope of research and training, provide inter- and intra-organizational use amongst many disciplines, and engage private sector partners. The work will have deep and long-lasting effects on future computer architectures for compute- and data-intensive applications by making the blueprints of the novel system architecture of the instrument publically available. Access to the high-performance software developed through this project will aid numerous science domains that utilize DL frameworks. The unprecedented computational capabilities of many applications will make it possible to tackle complex science, engineering and societal problems in many important fields ranging from education, to healthcare, to artificial intelligence (AI). This project will strive to include participants from under-represented minority and female students, to make new discoveries, train, and educate a new generation of users fluent with DL tools and methodologies, contributing to the development of a highly educated, and diverse workforce with specialized skillsets. Finally, the work will enable new industry-academic collaborations benefiting both the scientific community and industry nationwide.