MRI: Acquisition of a High-Performance Computing Cluster for Interdisciplinary Research and Teaching

收购高性能计算(HPC)集群，供农村地区的多德大学的教职员工和本科生使用，将对STEM和非STEM领域的几个新的和正在进行的多学科研究项目产生重大影响。该集群将为Dordt教员和其他地区大学和高中教员创造机会，将高性能计算集成到他们的研究、培训活动和课堂中。涵盖广泛学术学科的研究项目将得到新的高性能计算集群的支持，包括计算生物医学、药物化学、统计遗传学、行星化学和地震载荷下的结构完整性。该项目还将扩大高性能计算在社会科学统计研究、数字人文、机构研究和信息技术等其他领域的应用机会。这个本科生研究导师团队的研究工作将在很大程度上受到HPC集群的推动，导致一系列多样化和跨学科的高影响研究成果，为本科生提供尖端、高性能的计算研究体验，并作为主要是本科生的跨学科计算资源共享的典范。其他计算机科学、数据科学、统计学、工程学和化学系也将利用高级课程中的集群作为学生的研究培训机会。这一重大研究工具奖将提供基础设施，使教师能够进一步开发和维持已经培养出训练有素的本科生研究人员的研究项目，产生同行评议的出版物，并吸引外部支持。为了适应高性能计算用户的多学科研究应用，该项目将提供一个高性能计算集群，由一个头节点和18个计算节点组成，采用三种标准化配置：八个常规计算节点、八个高RAM节点和两个基于图形处理单元(GPU)的节点，用于大型分子建模系统等应用，将利用GPU的大规模并行矢量处理能力。在该项目的三年时间里，大约50名在校本科生(一半以上是女性；至少10%是少数)将接受初级教师用户关于拟议的高性能计算机群组的密集研究培训。此外，至少1500名本科生、初中生和高中生(许多来自农村、第一代大学或较低社会经济阶层)和教职员工将利用该群组作为STEM课程和外联活动的一部分，包括高中教师培训和教师发展研讨会，以及针对初中生的研究/教育计划。HPC资源也将是多尔特大学一项新倡议的组成部分，该倡议的重点是招收和留住有经济困难的有学业天赋的学生。这一奖项将为该地区带来额外的高性能计算能力，该地区目前获得HPC资源的机会有限，但STEM最近出现了快速增长。HPC集群将覆盖不同的用户社区，最大限度地发挥学生的影响力，激励更多的学生追求STEM职业并使用跨学科的计算工具。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The acquisition of a high-performance computing (HPC) cluster for use by faculty and undergraduate students at rurally located Dordt University will significantly impact several new and ongoing, multidisciplinary research projects in both STEM and non-STEM fields. This cluster will generate opportunities for Dordt faculty and other regional college and high school faculty to integrate high-performance computing into their research, training activities, and classrooms. Research projects covering a wide range of academic disciplines will be supported by the new HPC cluster, including computational biomedicine, medicinal chemistry, statistical genetics, planetary chemistry, and structural integrity under seismic loading. The project will also expand opportunities for HPC use within other fields such as social sciences statistical research, digital humanities, institutional research, and IT. The research endeavors of this team of undergraduate research mentors will be substantially catalyzed by the HPC cluster, leading to a diverse and interdisciplinary set of high-impact research findings, providing cutting-edge, high performance computing research experiences for undergraduate students, and acting as a model for cross disciplinary computational resource sharing at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions. Other faculty in computer science, data science, statistics, engineering, and chemistry will also utilize the cluster in upper-level courses as research training opportunities for students. This Major Research Instrumentation award will provide infrastructure that will enable faculty to further develop and sustain research programs that already produce skillfully trained undergraduate researchers, generate peer reviewed publications, and attract external support. To accommodate the multidisciplinary range of the research applications of HPC users, this project will provide a high performance computing cluster consisting of a head node and 18 compute nodes in three standardized configurations: eight regular compute nodes, eight high RAM nodes, and two Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)-based nodes for applications, such as large molecular modeling systems, that will harness the massively parallel vector processing abilities of GPUs. Over the three years of the project, approximately fifty graduate school-bound undergraduate students (over half female; at least 10% minority) will receive intensive research training on the proposed HPC cluster by the primary faculty users. Furthermore, at least 1500 additional undergraduate, middle and high school students (many from rural, first generation college, or lower socio-economic strata), and faculty will use the cluster as part of STEM courses and outreach activities, including high school teacher training and faculty development workshops, as well as research/education programs for middle and high school students. The HPC resources will also be integral to a new initiative at Dordt University focused on recruitment and retention of academically talented students with financial barriers to education. This award will bring additional high-performance computing capability to a region of the country which currently has limited access to HPC resources, but has seen recent rapid growth in STEM. The HPC cluster will reach a diverse user community and maximize student impact, inspiring more students to pursue STEM careers and use computational tools across disciplines.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.