High Performance Computing - Starting out Small EDUCAUSE Campus Cyberinfrastructure Workshop Snowmass, CO August 5, 2006 Bonnie Neas Interim Deputy CIO Executive Director ConnectND

North Dakota State University Profile Land-grant institution Located in Fargo, ND 12,100 students; 1600 graduate students (Fall ’05) –92 graduate degree programs Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) state Major programs –Engineering (largest college w/3,000 students) –Computer Science –Chemistry/Material Science –Physics –Agriculture sciences (2 nd smallest college)

Institutional Leadership “buy-in” –New President 1998 with a “next level” vision Research –Research expenditures »$50M in ’98 to $105M in ’05 Research & Technology Park established in 1999 –Center for Nanoscale Science & Engineering (DoD funded) –Alien Technologies (RFID technology funded partially by DoD) –Phoenix (John Deere Engineering Division) –Incubator –Research Administration –Hotel Athletics –Division II to Division I »Year 3 of 5 year probationary period –Created VP for Research – 2000 –Requested a 5 year HPC plan Engaged faculty who were computer “power” users Faculty member chaired the committee –HPC Plan accepted in 2001

HPC Plan Highlights Why is a HPC facility necessary? –To expand research programs –To improve the quality of research –To recruit quality faculty and students –Viewed in the State as an economic development engine through public/private sector partners

Implementation $1.5M start-up funding Located in new secure facilities in NDSU R&T Park Applied and was approved as a program “center” by ND State Board of Higher Education Platforms installed fall 2003 –Major users out of Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, Humanities (Anthropology) Joined Coalition for Academic Scientific Computation (CASC) Attend SC ##

HPC Governance Office of the VP for Research Advisory Council –One faculty representative from 7 out of 9 colleges (Business and Graduate Studies not represented) Staff –Director –Business Manager –Systems Administration –Service Level Agreement (SLA) w/central IT –Graduate Students Train our own!

Funding Difficult! Difficult! Difficult! Successful sources: –ND EPSCoR –College Deans –Research Administration –Grants - competitive –Congressional delegation

Challenges Faculty building their own clusters –Obsolescence –Leave –HALT! Funding –Insert costs of use into grant proposals of faculty –State funding –Grants (competitive) Campus, local, regional networking –Northern Tier Balancing State needs –Concern for competitiveness –Encourage private sector partnerships for economic development purposes

Challenges (con’t) Licensing –Academic –Commercial Faculty Use –Inexperienced: content w/local resources –Experienced: use local resources then move to regional/national resources. Barrier – networking infrastructure –Light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel! Collaboration/sharing –Just beginning to look at condominium model

Future? Optimistic! –Continued institutional leadership support –Community working together toward same goals – such as this workshop

Lessons Learned What comes first? –CI or applications Strong institutional leadership Planning is imperative Funding –Invest more effort into working on this piece Network with the community –Join professional organizations Educause, Internet2, CASC, etc. –Attend national conferences SC’06 Collaboration is hard work Local HPC Leadership

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination.” Albert Einstein Homepage of SC’06 -