IU to lead project linking research supercomputers

The federal government has chosen IU to lead a project to link supercomputers at six universities and turn them into "an experiment factory" for scientists conducting complex research.

University President Michael McRobbie announced Thursday the National Science Foundation had awarded IU's Bloomington campus $10.1 million to create the experimental supercomputing network. The six partners will provide about $4 million more for the FutureGrid network.

The scientists will develop new software to link nearly 1,400 advanced computer processing units at IU-Bloomington and the five other schools.

McRobbie said the FutureGrid project will allow scientists to conduct extremely demanding research, including complex climate modeling and analyzing and comparing DNA segments.