1. Research and Academic Computing Division
University Information Technology Services
Services overview for School of Medicine and Indiana Genomics Initiative
Craig Stewart
28 August 2001

2. License terms
Please cite as: Stewart, C.A Services overview for School of Medicine and Indiana Genomics Initiative. Presentation. 28 August 2001, IU School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN.
Except where otherwise noted, by inclusion of a source url or some other note, the contents of this presentation are © by the Trustees of Indiana University. This content is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license ( This license includes the following terms: You are free to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work and to remix – to adapt the work under the following conditions: attribution – you must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.

3. Guiding Principles for UITS
IU’s goal: “To be a leader in absolute terms in … information technology” -IU president Myles Brand, 1996
Indiana University Information Technology Strategic Plan (sets out goals for all areas of IT, including research computing)
The entire University community is the UITS customer base; faculty members are partners as well as customers.

4. IU IT Strategic Plan: High Performance Computing
Action 29. In order to maintain its position of leadership in the constantly changing field of high-performance computing, the University should plan to continuously upgrade and replace its high-performance computing facilities to keep them at a level that satisfies the increasing demand for computational power.
Action 31. The University should plan to evolve its high-performance computing and communications infrastructure so it has the features to be compatible with and can participate in the emerging national computational grid.

5. IU IT Strategic Plan: Data-intensive computation
Action 30. The University needs to provide facilities and support for computationally and data-intensive research, for non-traditional areas such as the arts and humanities, as well as for the more traditional areas of scientific computation.
Action 33. The University, through UITS, should provide support for a wider range of research software including database systems, text-based and text-markup tools, scientific text processing systems, and software for statistical analysis. UITS should investigate the possibilities for enterprise-wide agreements for software acquisitions similar to the Microsoft Enterprise License Agreement.

6. IU IT Strategic Plan: Massive Data Storage
Action 32. The University should evaluate and acquire high-capacity storage systems, capable of managing very large data volumes from research instruments, remote sensors, and other data-gathering facilities.

7. IU IT Strategic Plan: Collaboration
Action 27. UITS should launch an aggressive program to systematically evaluate and deploy across the University state-of-the-art tools and infrastructure that can support collaboration within the University, nationally and globally.

8. IU IT Strategic Plan: IT Research
Action 34. UITS should participate with faculty on major research initiatives involving information technology, where it is appropriate and of institutional advantage. Further UITS should provide proactive encouragement and supportive services that create opportunities where faculty from diverse disciplines might come together on collaborative projects involving information technology.

9. Pervasive Technology Labs
Establishing by grant from Lilly Endowment
Early success was one of several factors facilitating the INGEN grant.
Includes six laboratories:
Grid Computing
Advanced Networking Tools
Open systems
Visualization for science, research, and education
Human-computer interfaces
Wireless technologies and convergence
Smart devices

10. Michael A. McRobbie Vice President for Information Technology &
Chief Information Officer

11. RAC Services/Subunits
Computation (Director Craig Stewart)
System management: Research and Technical Services (RATS)
High Performance Computing Support Team (HPCST)
Stat/Math software management and support: Center for Statistical & Mathematical Computing (Stat/Math)
Unix workstation support: Unix Workstation Support Group (UWSG)
Data (Director Gerry Bernbom)
Advanced visualization/VR: Advanced Visualization Laboratory (AVL)
Massive data storage/academic storage infrastructure: Distributed Storage Services Group (DSSG)
Digital libraries: Digital Music Library (DML)Project
Online texts: Library Electronic Text Resource Service (LETRS)

12. Guiding principles for RAC
RAC mission: The mission of the Research and Academic Computing Division of University Information Technology Services (UITS) is to enable Indiana University to be on the cutting edge of intellectual and artistic achievement by providing world-class systems, services, and support for IU's researchers, clinicians, engineers, artists, and students. In so doing, we help advance human knowledge and quality of life.
Provide services on a base-funded (no chargeback) basis whenever possible and appropriate
Engage in in-depth collaborations with research faculty whenever beneficial

13. Objectives for systems and support at IUPUI
University-wide access to RAC systems (SP, E10000, Steel)
Good local support - physical location of the computing systems should be irrelevant
Achieve economies of scale – university as a whole should have access to larger systems than any individual campus could manage
Support critical new initiatives, especially INGEN

14. Particular problems @ IUPUI for RAC
As of 1997, no staff devoted to research support
Distrust between campuses, particularly in terms of using research systems physically located in Bloomington.
RSM environment
Lack of established community of high performance computer (HPC) usage

15. Where are we right now? Successes: AutoCAD license
Consolidation and expansion of site licenses for research software, esp. SPSS Enterprise License Agreement
Better availability of Unix OS media
Participation in INGEN
Obstacles that remain:
Account creation system
Engrained belief sets & lack of community history
Filling new positions and climbing learning curves

17. RAC Systems Overview
Research SP (IBM RS/6000 SP, funded in part by INGEN). IU’s most powerful supercomputer, and the recommended choice for INGEN activities.
Sun E Supoprts shared memory parallel programming, recommended only for researchers with particular needs of this type.
PC Cluster. Cluster of Linux PCs. Due for a refresh.
Steel. For instructional activities that require a Unix environment.

18. Research SP
Photo: Tyagan Miller. May be reused by IU for noncommercial
purposes. To license for commercial use, contact the photographer

19. STK Robotic Tape Storage Silo
Photo: Tyagan Miller. May be reused by IU for noncommercial
purposes. To license for commercial use, contact the photographer

20. Sun E10000 Photo: Tyagan Miller. May be reused by IU for noncommercial
purposes. To license for commercial use, contact the photographer

21. Parallel PC Cluster
Photo: Tyagan Miller. May be reused by IU for noncommercial
purposes. To license for commercial use, contact the photographer

23. Grants and Partnerships
INGEN
IBM Shared University Research grant – 2001 grant involved several SoM researchers and resulted in grant of $1.2 M ( retail value)
NSF Major Research Infrastructure – pending

24. IBM RS/6000 SP expansion
Funded by INGEN, OVPIT, and hardware grant from IBM
Key goal: to get this hardware in use supporting work by IU researchers, especially INGEN researchers

25. Current

26. Life Sciences Partnership

27. NSF MRI Grant - Proposed AVIDD Architecture

28. INGEN IT Core Staff Systems administrators – 2 HPC consultants – 2
Advanced visualization consultants – 3
Data management consultants - 1

29. Critical points for SoM
Computer accounts and computer time are provided at no additional cost to you or your department
Massive data storage up to 0.5 TB for research purposes is free. (Detailed discussions ongoing in this area with other parts of INGEN)
HPC programming and Advanced Visualization consulting through the normal base-funded model is free, although more limited at IUPUI than IUB due to differences in base funding availability
Consulting in support of INGEN in the areas of programming, databases, and visualization is available and funded by INGEN for INGEN-affiliated researchers

30. What we would like to do
Meet with researchers, departments, cores to discuss your IT needs and how the Research&Academic Computing Division of UITS can help
Help get you set up with accounts and introductory training
Help consult with you on particular needs
Provide software
Through UITS and INGEN budgets on central systems
For workstations, at highly reduced costs through existing or new site licenses.

31. What we cannot do Provide desktop technology
Operational management or implementation in toto of IT systems within other Programs and Cores
Provide services funded by RCM base funds for auxilery units (clinical activities are often challenging to sort out in this regard and it is difficult to make a blanket statement)

32. What we can do only on a cost-recovery basis
Provide short-term assistance with Unix systems administration

33. Management of IT Core
Craig Stewart. Overall coordination, Director of RAC (Computation).
David Hart. HPC support, including introductory training.
Mary Papakhian. Systems management.
Gerry Bernbom. Director of RAC (Data)
Anurag Shankar. Massive Data Storage Systems.
Eric Wernert. Advanced visualization.

34. Existing areas of collaboration related to biomedical research
Radiology – image processing
Advanced visualization of optical imaging
Bioinformatics (BioSIFTER)
Computational phylogenetics
Medical genetics (just starting)

35. Important urls RAC Web page: www.indiana.edu/~uits/rac
UITS Web page:
Account generation: iuaccts.ucs.indiana.edu/
Questions and problems: send to

36. Thank you.
Any Questions?