Rapid advances in brain mapping have resulted in the generation of massive amounts of image and statistical data concerning the human brain. These advances have resulted in an acute need for high performance computing. The Laboratory of Neuro Imaging has been a frontrunner in the adoption of cutting-edge technology to understand dynamic changes such as development and degeneration of the human brain in health and disease. Our group has gained worldwide recognition for the development of computational algorithms and high-order mathematical approaches to the investigation of brain registration, the analysis of variance between and within populations, and the visualization of these data. These techniques, however, now must not only accommodate four dimensions, as ongoing projects at LONI and elsewhere generate timevarying, multidimensional statistical fields but also be able to reasonably process data that are increasingly more complex. We now routinely apply these computationally demanding methods to population studies in order to achieve sensitivity to these potentially subtle differences. In response to these computational challenges, a group of neuro-, biomedical and computer scientists with common interests and computational needs have come together to seek funding to augment a shared compute cluster currently nearing full utilization. While existing networking and storage infrastructures are able to accommodate the increasing the demands placed on these systems by four-dimensional volume computation, intricate surface extraction, nonlinear warping and the multi-modal integration of complex is surfaces with data from disparate sources, contention for available processing resources has been acute and detrimental to scientific progress. The requested computational cluster would be available on a shared basis, for interactive use locally and processing remotely and will fully leverage an existing cluster computing framework developed and optimized at LONI over the past several years. An administrative plan is already in place by which the equipment can be managed equitably. Software that would greatly enhance the research projects exists to take advantage of this new equipment. Technical and management personnel also are part of the funded group of participants. The existing collaborations of the participants and the common algorithmic requirements will enable sharing of computer code, analytic procedures, computational strategies and infrastructural capabilities. The provision of the requested instrument will alleviate our current usage contention, enhance the productivity of ongoing funded research at LONI and collaborating sites in schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and brain development, among others, and foster the development of leading edge technology and applications for all participants.
