9523470 Leuze Currently few researchers from historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) are able to effectively incorporate high performance computing (HPC) technology into their research. The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences (JICS), a consortium between the University of Tennessee (UT) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), seeks to remedy this lack through training, hands-on experience, and long term collaborative relations between HBCU researchers, and computational scientists and applications researchers. This goal will be met by the establishment of a Metacenter Regional Alliance (MRA) at UT to enable JICS to extend supercomputing support to HBCUs within the southeastern United States. Initially, four HBCUs will participate in the MRA's planned activities: Tennessee State University and Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, Alabama A&M in Normal, Alabama, and Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Approximately twelve individuals from these four institutions will be selected to participate in Summer Computational Workshops, with the goals: To provide basic instruction in the use of HPC resources, particularly parallel computers and clusters of workstations linked via PVM; to begin developing and porting application codes to HPC through one-on-one and small group consultations with JICS staff, and to initiate collaborations with researchers with common interests at UT, ORNL, and other institutions affiliated with JICS and the NSF Metacenter. Equipment to facilitate remote collaboration and interaction with HBCUs will be used to maintain communications between participating researchers and MRA personnel.
