MRI: Acquisition of High Performance Computing Equipment for Research and Teaching at an Undergraduate Liberal Arts College

这项主要研究仪器补助金支持获得高性能计算（HPC）系统，这是米德尔伯里学院第一个大型跨学科研究集群，这是一所研究密集型本科机构。自然科学和社会科学的前沿研究利用数字技术来模拟和评估重要的社会、环境和科学问题。复杂的建模技术和不断扩展的数据集需要多处理器服务器的处理能力，需要能够读取和分析大小为几百gb或更小tb的数据集。高性能计算系统提供的计算能力可用于任何学科的计算机建模或数据分析应用程序。该设备支持的研究是多种多样和有影响力的，从研究贸易和农业技术对粮食市场的影响到对疼痛敏感性变异的基因组研究。该提案包括九个独立的研究项目，计划使用高性能计算系统，还有更多的项目在排队。总的来说，处理能力的大幅提高扩大了米德尔伯里现有研究的范围，并使现有计算基础设施无法实现的新项目成为可能。HPC还支持教师指导的社会科学和自然科学研究培训项目，履行学院教学使命的关键部分。明德学院特别努力在STEM和与STEM相关的社会科学领域招募和支持代表性不足的少数族裔。HPC增加了学生在这些领域获得教师指导研究的机会。将进行的研究主要集中在人类行为上，有可能完善神经学和基因组学研究的最佳实践。研究项目将利用HPC资源跨越政治学、经济学、神经科学、计算机科学和生物学。一个项目研究了失业的不同原因及其对劳动力市场恢复速度的影响，提出了针对失业的更有针对性的纠正措施。一项神经科学研究探索了疼痛感知和压力反应，重点关注动物如何在有害刺激下学习，并将特定基因与反应的变化联系起来。另外两个项目涉及DNA测序。一个提供了新的建模技术，以改进从观察数据预测基因型；另一项研究是利用基因组测序技术研究有毒藻类的繁殖和病毒的繁殖减缓机制。高性能计算的灵活性使其成为一种多学科工具，可以加强与STEM相关的社会科学和更传统的STEM领域的研究。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。

This Major Research Instrumentation Grant award supports the acquisition of a high-performance computing (HPC) system, the first large-scale, interdisciplinary research cluster at Middlebury College, a research intensive undergraduate institution. Cutting-edge research in the natural and social sciences utilizes digital technology to model and evaluate important social, environmental and scientific problems. Sophisticated modeling techniques and expanding datasets require the processing capabilities of a multi-processor server with the capability to read and analyze datasets sized as large as several hundred gigabytes or low terabytes. High-performance computing systems offer computing power that is useable across any discipline with computer modeling or data analysis applications. The research to be supported by this equipment is varied and impactful, ranging from studies of the impact of trade and agricultural technology on food markets to genomic studies of variation in pain sensitivity. This proposal includes nine separate research projects slated to use the HPC system with many more in queue. Overall, this substantial increase in processing capability enhances the scope of existing research at Middlebury and makes possible new projects that would have otherwise been impossible with existing computing infrastructure. HPC also supports faculty-mentored research-training programs in the social and natural sciences, fulfilling a critical part of the college's teaching mission. Middlebury College takes special effort to recruit and support underrepresented minorities in the STEM and STEM-related social sciences. HPC increases student access to faculty-guided research in these fields. The research to be conducted focuses primarily on human behaviors with the potential to refine best practices in neurological and genomic studies. Research projects will leverage the HPC resource across political science, economics, neuroscience, computer science and biology. One project examines heterogeneous causes for unemployment and their impact on labor market recovery rates, suggesting more targeted corrective measures for unemployment. A neuroscience study explores pain perception and stress responses, focusing on how animals learn in response to noxious stimuli and tying particular genes to variation in responses. Two other projects involve DNA sequencing. One offers new modeling techniques to improve genotype prediction from observed data; another examines toxic algae blooms and investigates viruses as bloom-mitigation mechanisms using genome sequencing techniques. The flexibility of HPC makes it a multi-disciplinary tool to enhance research across STEM-related social sciences and more traditional STEM fields.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.