Acquisition of a High-Performance Computing Cluster for Big-Data in University of Massachusetts, Geosciences

马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校的这一高性能计算(HPC)集群将支持地球科学系的一系列计算密集型研究活动，特别是最近成立的地震学研究小组。加州大学马萨诸塞分校各种地球科学的研究活动涉及大数据集，其中计算扮演着不可或缺的角色。这包括地震学、地质力学、地貌学、水文学、沉积学、地理学和气候学的研究实验室。高效的HPC集群最有效地满足了这一巨大的计算需求。HPC集群将为马萨诸塞州大学地球科学学院的一系列研究活动提供尖端、高性能的计算能力，包括三名女性和两名职业生涯早期的教职员工及其学生和博士后。HPC集群还将通过马萨诸塞州绿色高性能计算中心(MGHPCC)提供给其他各种UMassas校园用户，并将极大地丰富UMassas的研究基础设施。该仪器将为本科生、研究生和博士后研究人员提供实践跨学科研究培训。更广泛地说，该项目的成果将被纳入为期两周的夏季地震学教育讲习班，目标是来自五所大学社区的本科生。马萨诸塞州大学与地球科学广泛相关的多个学科的大量研究人员对高性能计算集群有着强烈的需求。这种高性能计算集群将满足他们的研究需求。急需的共享高性能计算集群将支持美国国家科学基金会资助的几个领域的研究项目。这包括一项新的NSF/EAR职业资助，旨在通过先进的地震建模方法，对俯冲带内部和沿线变化的性质有一个新的理解。依赖于高性能计算的三维地球结构内的全波传播模拟为我们提供了约束地壳和地幔岩石圈三维地震特征的有力途径。所申请的高性能计算多国办事处也将立即用于地球科学方面广泛的研究活动，其中包括：(1)美国国家科学基金会提供的量化美国中西部土壤侵蚀速率的职业补助金；(2)美国国家科学基金会/EAR提供的用岩石材料模拟裂缝扩展的补助金；(3)美国国家航空航天局支持的缅因湾极端海平面危险研究生奖学金；(4)NSF/EAR关于北美东部大陆沉积和岩石圈随地质时期演变的补助金。以及(5)调查北冰洋陆源溶解有机碳输入和描述动态社会环境洪水风险的两个项目。HPC专题组将支持一名职业生涯早期的女地震学家以及马萨诸塞州阿默斯特大学新的地震学小组的职业发展。扩大地震学研究和教学具有显著的潜力，可以吸引五所大学社区(包括马萨诸塞州大学阿默斯特学院、阿默斯特学院、汉普郡学院、全女性史密斯学院和曼荷莲学院)的本科生和研究生。此外，皮高一直是一名志愿者教师，通过Girls Inc.Eureka为代表不足的8-12年级女孩提供工作坊！该奖项是马萨诸塞州霍利奥克市的Girls Inc.和马萨诸塞州大学阿默斯特分校之间的一个强有力的STEM合作项目。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。

This high-performance computing (HPC) cluster at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst will support a wide range of computation-intensive research activities at the Department of Geosciences, especially the recently established Seismology Research Group. Research activities across a wide diversity of UMass Geosciences deal with big datasets, where computation plays an integral role. This includes research laboratories in seismology, geomechanics, geomorphology, hydrology, sedimentology, geography, and climatology. This overwhelming computation demand is most effectively met with efficient HPC clusters. The HPC cluster will provide cutting-edge, high performance computational power to a wide range of research activities at the UMass Geosciences, including three female and two early-career faculty members as well as their students and postdocs. The HPC cluster will also be made available to a diversity of other UMass campus users through the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC) and will greatly enrich UMass research infrastructure. The instrumentation will provide hands-on interdisciplinary research training to undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. More broadly, the outcome of this project will be integrated into a two-week Summer Seismology Education Workshop, targeting undergraduate students from the Five-College Community. Strong needs for HPC cluster exist from a large number of researchers across multiple disciplines broadly related to Earth Sciences at UMass. This high-performance computing cluster will meet their research demands. The much-needed shared HPC cluster will support NSF-funded research projects in several areas. This includes a new NSF/EAR CAREER grant to develop a new understanding of the nature of variation within and along subduction zones with advanced methods of seismic modeling. The cutting-edge full-wave propagation simulation within 3D Earth structures, which relies on high-performance computation, provides us a powerful way to constrain the three-dimensional seismic features of the crust and mantle lithosphere. The requested HPC cluster will also find immediate applications across a wide range of research activities in Geosciences, including: (1) an NSF CAREER grant to quantify soil erosion rates of the midwestern U.S.; (2) an NSF/EAR grant to simulate fracture propagation with rock material; (3) a NASA-supported graduate fellowship on extreme sea level hazard in the Gulf of Maine; (4) an NSF/EAR grant on continental accretion and lithospheric evolution through geologic time in eastern North America. And (5) two projects to investigate the terrestrially dissolved organic carbon input to the Arctic Ocean and to characterize dynamic socio-environmental flash flood risk. The HPC cluster will support the career development of an early-career female seismologist as well as the new seismology group at UMass Amherst. Expansion of seismology research and teaching has outstanding potential to attract undergraduate and graduate students at the Five-College Community (including UMass Amherst, Amherst College, Hampshire College, all-female Smith and Mount Holyoke Colleges). In addition, PI Gao has been a volunteer instructor, offering workshops for underrepresented 8th-12th-grade girls through the Girls Inc. Eureka! Program (a national organization), which is a strong STEM-based collaboration between Girls Inc. of Holyoke, Massachusetts and UMass Amherst.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.