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iCER Director's Note

Dear MSU Community,

It’s “all hands on deck” as the iCER team enters the final stages of the new cluster installation. As work is under way, we’ve made sure to invite some old friends to stop by to bid adieu to the clusters that helped them achieve their results.

Dr. Wolfgang Bauer, MSU Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy (right), stopped by for a visit a few weeks ago when intel10 was taken offline after six years of service. Dr. Bauer has used HPC tools for the last 20 years to explore nuclear physics problems through advanced simulations, and said iCER is a valuable resource to MSU faculty members and their students.

“No other (HPC) center in the country has put the same emphasis on personnel and helping people reach their goals through one-on-one interaction as MSU’s HPCC team,” Dr. Bauer said. “(This machine upgrade) is a big step toward becoming a national supercomputing center, and puts us into position to attract more researchers.”

We couldn't agree more, Dr. Bauer!

Spartans Will.

Kennie Merz

HPCC News

Cluster16 has arrived! As we’re busy unpacking, installing and testing it, our System Administration team continues to prioritize ensuring the highest level of user experience and system stability.

Make sure to follow the iCER Cluster Blog to keep up with all the latest news, including recent pieces on the new cluster configuration and its cross-continental road trip.

Here's a look at how far we've come, and what's left for us to do:

Welcome Aboard!

In the midst of our ongoing cluster upgrades, the iCER team has added two new members:

Michael Rometty is the team’s new Information Technician, and provides valuable Help Desk support. Before transitioning into academia, he worked with Chrysler, Ford, and Visteon. Mike plays guitar in his free time.

Charlie Miller started last month as the new Information Technologist, and will be splitting his time between working on the MI-OSIRIS project and handling general system administrator work. Charlie is also an avid curler in his free time.

Business News

Don't forget to save the date for the 2016 CI Forum, which will be held this year on Oct. 6. This forum exists to support the implementation and use of cyberinfrastucture (CI) at research institutions.

Please plan to join us at SC16, which is being held in Salt Lake City, Utah, this year from Nov. 13-18. The iCER team will be set up at booth #1543.

Sparking Aha! Moments

Over 20 kids visited iCER's interactive stations for the annual Take Your Child to Work Day on April 28 outside the HPCC Machine Room.

Over the course of four stations, kids got a hands-on exploration of the hardware used in HPC, and an animated introduction to the principles of parallel computing.

Research News

HPCC users now have the option of using MATLAB Distributed Computing Server (MDCS) to run parallel jobs. MDCS allows users to offload MATLAB jobs to iCER compute nodes from both personal computers and development nodes. Click here for more information about about using MDCS on the HPCC, or contact us for more help.
The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) is soliciting proposals for computer time on Anton, a special-purpose supercomputer for molecular dynamics simulation. Later this year, a 128-node Anton 2 machine will be made available for research use by universities. Click here for more information or to register. The deadline for applications is June 23.

Training News

This month iCER will participate in the Faculty Seminars in Research & Instructional Technology.

We will host an Introduction to HPCC workshop for faculty, academic staff and graduate assistants on Wednesday, May 11.

Click here to register.

Outreach News

iCER invites researchers to share
5-10 minute presentations
with middle and high school girls at the
2016 Women in Engineering Camp
on Thursday, July 21.

Our goal is to share how computational tools facilitate research and discuss
how supercomputing empowers researchers in a variety of fields to make discoveries.

Click here for more information or to sign up. If you have any questions, please email us.

Do you know about an event, opportunity, job posting, or general news that would be of interest in our community? Email us at communication@icer.msu.edu and we will get the word out. All submissions will be posted at the discretion of the iCER Communications Coordinator.