Research Infrastructure: CC* Regional Computing: A Regional Computing Hub for Alabama Universities

该奖项是根据《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)整体资助的。现代研究在很大程度上依赖于自然现象和工程设计的计算机建模。拟议的区域计算中心将为阿拉巴马州大学联盟提供急需的计算能力和技术专长，以实现以下目标。首先，阿拉巴马州的教育实体采用现代计算技术，特别是针对少数族裔服务机构(MSI)。第二，通过促进跨多个学科的研究创造新知识，包括航空航天、农业、化学、林业、先进材料和生物科学。第三，为参与机构和更广泛的司法社区的研究人员提供教育、劳动力培训和分享专业知识的平台。这些目标直接针对NSF 2022-2026战略目标。高性能计算(HPC)是现代科学和工程研究的基石。对于计算需求，阿拉巴马州的大学依赖于不同种类的机构集群，导致资源未得到充分利用，大规模并行计算的可用性很低。为阿拉巴马州服务的地区计算中心配备了带有图形处理器(GPU)组件的旗舰HPC系统，使性能比司法管辖区内的任何单个系统高出一个数量级。该系统旨在满足阿拉巴马州研究机构多个不同STEM领域的用户的需求。新系统包含3000个中央处理器核心、24个支持图形处理器的节点和2PB的存储，并通过200Gbit/S Infiniband互连连接在一起。该中心向财团成员提供技术和教育资源，使他们的计算项目过渡到新平台。参与这一区域性多校区计算集群的机构包括：阿拉巴马大学亨茨维尔分校(UAH，牵头机构)、阿拉巴马农业与机械大学(AAMU，MSI)、阿拉巴马州立大学(ASU，MSI)、奥本大学(AU)、奥克伍德大学(OU，MSI)、塔斯基吉大学(TU，MSI)、阿拉巴马大学(UA)、伯明翰阿拉巴马大学(UAB)和南阿拉巴马大学(美国)。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。

This award is funded in whole under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Modern research relies heavily on computer modeling of natural phenomena and engineering designs. The proposed regional computing hub would provide the much needed computing power and technical expertise to a consortium of Alabama universities in order to achieve the following objectives. First, adoption of modern computational technologies by educational entities in Alabama, especially targeting minority serving institutions (MSIs). Second, creation of new knowledge by enabling research across multiple disciplines, including aerospace, agricultural, chemicals, forestry, advanced materials and biosciences. Third, providing a platform for education, workforce training, and sharing of expertise among researchers at participating institutions and the broader jurisdictional community. These objectives directly address the NSF 2022-2026 strategic goals.High performance computing (HPC) is a cornerstone of modern day scientific and engineering research. For the computing needs, Alabama universities rely on a heterogeneous collection of institutional clusters, resulting in resource under-utilization and low availability for massively parallel computations. The regional computing hub serving the state of Alabama features a flagship HPC system with a Graphic Processor (GPU) component, enabling performance an order of magnitude higher than any individual system in the jurisdiction. The system was designed to fit the needs of users from multiple diverse STEM fields across Alabama research institutions. The new system contains 3000 CPU cores, 24 GPU enabled nodes and 2 Pbytes of storage, linked together with a 200 Gbit/s Infiniband interconnect. The hub provides technical and educational resources to the members of the consortium to transition their computational projects to the new platform. Participating institutions in this regional multi-campus computing cluster include: University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH, lead institution), Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University (AAMU, MSI), Alabama State University (ASU, MSI), Auburn University (AU), Oakwood University (OU, MSI), Tuskegee University (TU, MSI), University of Alabama (UA), University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB), and University of Southern Alabama (USA).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.