IU gets $10 million for supercomputer

The National Science Foundation awarded IU a $10 million grant to create a new supercomputer called FutureGrid.

Brad Wheeler, IU’s vice president for Information Technology said the grant for the supercomputer is different than other NSF awards.

While most of the grants the NSF has given in the past are for one big supercomputer, IU will connect at least eight smaller ones to each other, Wheeler said.

The computers, which will run different systems, will be spread throughout the country.

Researchers can combine various programs and run experiments over an extremely fast network to see how they perform in different fields, like energy research and life sciences, Wheeler said.

FutureGrid is an “experimental test bed” of supercomputers on which researchers test their software and simulations on different types of computers and networks. Because some machines are better suited to certain programs and research, the supercomputer allows people to see which matches their work best, Wheeler said.

The research performed on supercomputers will eventually become “part of the public experience,” Wheeler said.

While performing their experiments, researchers will also learn more about combining computers and networks, which have the potential to improve the public’s computer knowledge.

Geoffrey Fox, director of the Pervasive Technology Institute and a professor of Informatics at IU, said FutureGrid will affect various industries.

“FutureGrid will serve as a proving ground for newly distributed computing systems and will open up exciting new avenues for scientific, commercial and governmental collaboration and research,” Fox said in an IU press release.

Wheeler said many people played a vital part in achieving the NSF grant.

“This is truly the realization of the work Michael McRobbie started back with President Brand,” Wheeler said. “IU would not have been in the competition a few years ago, and now we’re winning. It really is a credit to the president, to the Lilly Endowment, to everyone that’s invested in us over the years.”