This award will be used to acquire a high-performance computing (HPC) system for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The targeted system consists of 64 16-core central processing units (CPUs) augmented with 64 high-performance general-purpose graphical processing units (GPUs). Together, the CPUs will provide 1024 compute cores, and the GPUs will offer an aggregate peak performance rating of 42.56 trillion floating-point operations per second beyond that of the CPUs. In both computing power and architectural sophistication, this system is far beyond anything currently available at WPI. It will provide a much-needed shared resource for major large-scale computing tasks, an advanced-architecture platform for algorithm development and experimentation, and a highly effective vehicle for education and training in HPC and applications. It will be used immediately to advance research projects of the investigators that address three-dimensional modeling of sperm motility and interactions, parallel solution methods for coupled multi-block multi-physics systems, computational modeling of human ventricles and plaques, computational validation of effective multi-scale models of thermal behavior in liquid-cooled electronics, and acceleration methods for fixed-point iterations. Additionally, it will be made available from the start for use by other faculty, students, and postdoctoral researchers across the university.
This high-performance computing (HPC) system will enable new levels of research for the investigators and others, provide new opportunities for education and training at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), and be used to raise awareness among young people of the potential of HPC to address problems of societal concern. The investigators will develop a new graduate course in HPC methods and applications, in which the system will play a central role, and they will promote the system's use in existing courses and programs, in particular in WPI's new Bioinformatics and Computational Biology program. WPI's distinguished project-based undergraduate program will provide unique opportunities for involving undergraduates in HPC research, and the investigators will jointly develop and advise undergraduate projects that use the HPC system. To further involve undergraduates in HPC applications, they will introduce "real world" industrial projects that use the HPC system to WPI's NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates in Industrial Mathematics and Statistics. To broaden awareness of the role of HPC in science and society, they will develop programs for demonstrations and interactive simulations that will use the HPC system to illustrate how HPC can be used to address problems of societal concern. A number of possibilities for using these programs in outreach activities have been identified, and more will be sought. Also, internship opportunities involving HPC activities will be developed with the WPI-affiliated Massachusetts Academy of Mathematics and Science, a state-wide magnet school for advanced students.
