CC* Regional Computing: Building Cyberinfrastructure to Forge a Regional Research Computing Alliance in Southern California

南加州的教育机构，特别是那些专注于本科学习的教育机构，在访问基本的高性能计算（HPC）资源和网络基础设施方面面临着挑战。缺乏可访问性导致学生和教师对高性能计算的知识和经验减少，并阻碍了数据密集型研究活动的进展。南加州大学（USC）的高级研究计算中心（CARC）拥有该地区最大的高性能计算设施之一，并正在部署新的网络基础设施，以将其服务和专业知识扩展到该地区资源不足的大学。新的HPC系统的实施和相应的用户支持服务进一步巩固了南加州大学和Los Nettos联盟之间的现有合作，该联盟由6所成员大学和30个合作网络组成。新系统提供了与国家高性能计算中心相似的计算环境，具有先进的计算能力、高速网络和丰富的研究应用程序和软件堆栈工具。此外，该系统还利用了南加州大学现有的网络基础设施，如中央文件系统、HPC集群互连和联邦身份验证。该项目大大增加了区域机构的学生和研究人员对先进网络基础设施的可及性，同时促进了多机构的研究合作，从而形成了该地区的计算研究和教育中心-南加州研究计算联盟。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

Educational institutions in Southern California, particularly those focused on undergraduate studies, face challenges in accessing essential high-performance computing (HPC) resources and cyber-infrastructure. This lack of accessibility leads to decreased knowledge and experience with HPC among students and faculty and inhibits advancements in data-intensive research activities. The University of Southern California’s (USC) Center for Advanced Research Computing (CARC) houses one of the largest HPC facilities in the region and is deploying new cyberinfrastructure to expand their services and expertise to under-resourced universities in the area. The implementation of this new HPC system with corresponding user support services further solidifies the existing collaboration between USC and the Los Nettos consortium, comprised of 6 member universities and 30 associate networks.The new system offers a similar computing environment to national HPC centers with advanced computing capacity, high-speed network, and abundant research applications and tools in its software stack. Additionally, the system leverages existing cyberinfrastructure at USC such as central file systems, HPC cluster interconnection, and federated authentication. This project significantly increases the accessibility of advanced cyberinfrastructure to students and researchers of regional institutions while catalyzing multi-institutional research collaborations, thereby forming a computational research and education hub in the region—the Southern California Research Computing Alliance.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.