Wayne State University has made investments in research computing including construction of a new data center, deployment of high-speed networks with global reach, and massive storage for globally accessible data. This NSF CC* project augments those existing high-performance computing resources through the addition of six high-speed, multiprocessor systems with a large amount of memory each with 1.5 terabytes and 3 NVIDIA graphic processing units (GPUs) capable of up to 120 trillion calculations per second in each system. Simulations that used to take months can be completed in days, thereby speeding research in many areas and expanding resources for the University's 275 research teams and 1,500 unique users of which 1,000 are students.
The impact of this new equipment spreads across multiple disciplines including Computational Chemistry, Membrane Biophysics, Molecular Dynamics, Complex Materials and ground-breaking work in the study of Nuclear Matter and its various phases. Modeling relativistic heavy ion collisions that produce the Quark Gluon Plasma in reasonable wall times was beyond the capability of the old hardware, but with the new system such simulations can be made and help shed light on strongly coupled systems and inform the nature of the early Universe. The GPUs have special features called Tensor Flow Cores, of particular use in Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning and Analytics. These augment research in urban and environmental health. The GPUs are also a boon for education in Wayne State's new Master of Science in Data Science joint program in Engineering, Computer Science and School of Business
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.
