NSF Org:	OAC Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC)
Recipient:	UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS
Initial Amendment Date:	September 11, 2012
Latest Amendment Date:	September 11, 2012
Award Number:	1229059
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Amy Walton awalton@nsf.gov  (703)292-4538 OAC  Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) CSE  Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
Start Date:	October 1, 2012
End Date:	October 31, 2015 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$1,622,830.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$1,622,830.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2012 = $1,368,395.00
History of Investigator:	Christopher Hill (Principal Investigator) cnh@mit.edu Gene Cooperman (Co-Principal Investigator) Claudio Rebbi (Co-Principal Investigator) Prashant Shenoy (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute 100 VENTURE WAY STE 9 HADLEY MA  US  01035-9462 (413)545-0001
Sponsor Congressional District:	02
Primary Place of Performance:	MGHPCC 100 Bigelow St Holyoke MA  US  01040-5745
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	01
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	FDJ8NZJ9JSW3
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s):	Major Research Instrumentation
Primary Program Source:	01001213DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):	1189
Program Element Code(s):	118900
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.070

ABSTRACT

This work includes a consortium acquisition of a shared high-performance computing (HPC) instrument emphasizing HPC-based science and engineering with the benefit of "on-demand" capabilities. The instrument is a hybrid platform, integrating a state-of-the-art cluster computer with forward-looking, potentially exascale-oriented, GPU accelerator hardware that will enable progress in key STEM applications across a consortium of higher-educational partners with a research agenda that spans science disciplines.

The system?s high levels of responsiveness will be applied to systems modeling and identification for immunology, interactive drug pathway analysis, bio-molecular electrostatics, virtual earth modeling and data analysis, multi-scale environment modeling, adaptive real-time model data synthesis, interactive virtualized materials design, and studying fundamental physics of matter. In computer science, researchers and industry collaborators will use the instrument as a controlled, configurable facility with an advanced user base and application workload, driving forward research into abstractions for next-generation HPC environments, enhanced virtualization methodologies for large-scale HPC, and quantitatively experimenting in cloud/service paradigms at scale for HPC.

The acquisition will catalyze collaboration among scientists, engineers, computational science practitioners and computer scientists with research interests in
- broadening the use of HPC for critical science and engineering problems
- driving knowledge in earth science, life science, material science and basic physics
- developing new, more engaging approaches to HPC
- paving the way for a post-petascale HPC ecosystem spanning software to workforce skills
- ere are extensive education and outreach activities planned to grow participation across institutional research communities as well as among local collaborators at community colleges, in K-12 education, and in community organizations.

The instrument will contribute to cyberinfrastructure in multiple ways and will be a valuable part of a broader public-private partnership enhancing computational science infrastructure and catalyzing high-tech innovation.

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