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

马萨诸塞州（UMass）阿默斯特大学的高性能计算（HPC）集群将支持地球科学系的各种计算密集型研究活动，特别是最近成立的地震研究小组。在马萨诸塞州地质科学的广泛多样性的研究活动处理大数据集，其中计算起着不可或缺的作用。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集群可以最有效地满足这种压倒性的计算需求。HPC集群将为麻省大学地球科学学院的各种研究活动提供尖端的高性能计算能力，其中包括三名女性和两名早期职业教师以及他们的学生和博士后。HPC集群还将通过马萨诸塞州绿色高性能计算中心（MGHPCC）提供给其他各种各样的马萨诸塞大学校园用户，并将极大地丰富马萨诸塞大学的研究基础设施。该仪器将为本科生、研究生和博士后研究人员提供实践性的跨学科研究培训。更广泛地说，这个项目的成果将被纳入为期两周的夏季地震教育研讨会，针对来自五个学院社区的本科生。对HPC集群的强烈需求存在于与麻省大学地球科学广泛相关的多个学科的大量研究人员中。这个高性能计算集群将满足他们的研究需求。急需的共享HPC集群将支持多个领域的NSF资助的研究项目。这包括一个新的NSF/CAREER赠款，以发展一个新的理解内和沿着俯冲带与先进的地震建模方法的变化的性质。基于高性能计算的三维地球结构中的全波传播模拟技术为我们提供了一种强有力的方法来约束地壳和地幔岩石圈的三维地震特征。所请求的HPC集群还将在地球科学的广泛研究活动中找到直接应用，包括：（1）NSF CAREER赠款，以量化美国中西部的土壤侵蚀率; (2)美国国家科学基金会（NSF）/美国国家地质调查局（NASA）资助的岩石材料断裂扩展模拟研究;（3）美国国家航空航天局资助的缅因州海湾极端海平面灾害研究生奖学金;（4）美国国家科学基金会（NSF）/美国国家地质调查局资助的北美东部地质时期大陆增生和岩石圈演化研究。和（5）两个项目，调查陆地溶解有机碳输入北冰洋和表征动态社会环境山洪风险。HPC集群将支持一位早期职业女性地震学家的职业发展，以及马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校新成立的地震学小组。地震学研究和教学的扩大具有吸引五所学院社区（包括马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特学院、阿默斯特学院、汉普郡学院、全女性史密斯学院和霍利奥克山学院）的本科生和研究生的突出潜力。此外，PI Gao一直是一名志愿者指导员，通过Girls Inc.为代表性不足的8 - 12年级女孩提供讲习班。尤里卡！计划（一个国家组织），这是一个强大的STEM为基础的合作女孩公司。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.