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机构，在获取基本的高性能计算(HPC)资源和网络基础设施方面面临挑战。这种缺乏可访问性导致学生和教职员工对HPC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)高级研究计算中心(CARC)拥有该地区最大的HPC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。这一具有相应用户支持服务的新HPC系统的实施进一步巩固了南加州大学与LOS Nettos财团之间的现有合作，该财团由6所成员大学和30个附属网络组成。新系统提供了类似于国家HPC中心的计算环境，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群集互联和联合身份验证。该项目显著增加了先进网络基础设施对地区机构的学生和研究人员的可获得性，同时促进了多机构研究合作，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。

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.