MRI-R2: Acquisition of a high performance central computing facility at UCSB

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)资助的。提案#：09-60316PI(S)：Brown，Frank，L.；Fredrickson，Glenn，H.；Garcia-Cervera，Carlos；Gilbert，John，R.；Van de Walle，G.机构：加州大学圣巴巴拉分校标题：磁共振成像-R2：收购加州大学圣巴巴拉分校的高性能中央计算设施项目建议：该项目，获取计算集群以取代已有六年历史的系统，允许数十名研究人员访问快速中型并行计算，并作为该机构用于并行计算的主要资源。该系统的结构可用于各种用途。标准的MPI计算是通过紧耦合的四核处理器集群执行的，而拥有256 GB RAM的“FAT节点”以及需要大量共享内存的本地高速磁盘存储服务作业。积极开发代码的研究人员可以利用GPU(图形处理)节点的独特性能特征。该系统将有几个NVIDIA特斯拉节点。该系统的用户来自工程学院的全部五个系(化学工程、计算机科学、电气与计算机工程、材料和机械工程)，数学、生命和物理系的七个系(化学与生化、地球科学、生态进化与与海洋生物学、数学、分子细胞与发育生物学、物理学和心理学)，以及人文与社会科学系的经济、地理和媒体艺术与技术系。此外，该系统还支持八个校园中心的研究：阿洛球体研究设施、加州纳米系统研究所、聚合物和有机固体中心、地壳研究所、卡夫利理论物理研究所、材料研究实验室、国家生态分析与合成中心和神经科学研究所。新系统将安装在与以前相同的位置，在那里将应用过去六年使用的相同成功的管理和维护程序。建议的集群将通过UC Grid访问，这是一个Web门户界面，使高性能计算资源易于从台式机(PC或Mac)使用。购买的系统将提供三年保修。先前的经验表明，在群集的有效生命周期(3年)内，预计只有少量节点会出现故障。更广泛的影响：由校园设施实现的研究具有跨学科和协作性的性质，可供广泛的研究社区使用。绝大多数用户(约75%)由博士后、研究生和本科生(5%)组成，这使得该奖项实现了NSF将研究与教育相结合的长期目标。通过一项新的倡议，即科学思想学校(SST)，对K-12进行推广，这是让我们探索物理科学(LEAPS)计划的延伸。根据SST计划，UCSB理工科研究生在周六为高中生设计并教授一门课程。此外，许多与该计划相关的教职员工通过高级学位项目参与了加州大学领导力卓越项目，该项目增加了加州大学伯克利分校理工科代表不足的学生数量。

"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)." Proposal #: 09-60316PI(s): Brown, Frank, L.; Fredrickson, Glenn, H.; Garcia-Cervera, Carlos; Gilbert, John, R.; Van de Walle, Christian, G.Institution: University of California-Santa Barbara Title: MRI-R2: Acquisition of a High Performance Central Computing Facility at UCSBProject Proposed:This project, acquiring of a computational cluster to replace a six-year-old system, allows access to fast mid-sized parallel computation to dozens of researchers and serves as the institution's primary resource for parallel computation. The system is structured for a variety of uses. Standard MPI computation is carried out with a tightly coupled cluster of quad core processors, while 'fat nodes' with 256 GB of RAM as well as local high speed disk storage service jobs that require large shared memory. Researchers actively developing codes can take advantage of the unique performance characteristics of GPU (graphics processing) nodes. The system will have several NVidia Tesla nodes.The users of the system are drawn from all five departments of the College of Engineering (Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Materials, and Mechanical Engineering), seven departments of the Division of Mathematical, Life and Physical Sciences (Chemistry & Biochemistry, Earth Science, Ecology Evolution & Marine Biology, Mathematics, Molecular Cellular & Developmental Biology, Physics, and Psychology), as well as the departments of Economics, Geography, and Media Arts & Technology from the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences. In addition, the system supports research in eight campus centers: Allosphere Research Facility, the California NanoSystems Institute, the Center for Polymers and Organic Solids, the Institute for Crustal Studies, the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, the Materials Research Laboratory, the National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis, and the Neuroscience Research Institute.The new system will be housed in the same location as the previous one where the same successful administrative and maintenance procedures used for the past six years will be applied. The proposed cluster will be accessible via the UC Grid, a web portal interface that makes high performance computing resources easy to use from desktop machines (PCs or Macs). The acquired system will come with a three-year warranty. Prior experience has shown that only a small number of nodes are expected to malfunction during the useful lifetime ( 3 years) of the cluster. Broader Impacts: The research enabled by the campus-wide facility, interdisciplinary and collaborative in nature, is available to the broad research community. The large majority of users, roughly 75%, consists of postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates (5%), allowing this award to accomplish NSF's longstanding goal of integrating research and education. Outreach to K-12 takes place via a new initiative, The School for Scientific Thought (SST), an extension to the Let's Explore Physical Sciences (LEAPS) Program. Under the SST Program UCSB science and engineering graduate students design and teach a course for an audience of high school students on Saturdays. In addition, many of the faculty associated with this proposal participate in the UC Leadership Excellence through the Advanced Degrees program that has increased the number of underrepresented students in science and engineering at UCSB.