PowerPoint Presentation research computing at rit

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Research Computing at RIT Current State, Vision
Plan Boyd, Barbour, Khanna 06/29/06
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Agenda

• Don Opening Remarks
• Diane ITS vs. Research Computing
• Gurcharan Research Computing
• Diane CIO Activities
• Don Follow up

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Director of Research Computing Year 1

• Interviewed several dozens of faculty/researchers
  individually continuing
• Identified needs, set goals, developed plan
• Established a Directors Advisory Board (Don,
  Diane, Guy, Stefi)
• Building a connected RIT Research Community
  (website list forums)
• Partnered with faculty on external grant
  proposals (Co-PI with CASCI, IT)
• Assumed direct management of CIS permanent
  computing staff
• Managed LIAS staff to rebuild Condor cluster in
  CIS
• Resurrected IBM Cluster managing temp staff
  building new clientele
• Created Advanced Collaboration Technologies Lab
  in CASCI
• Obtained equipment donations from outside vendors
  (Sun, Microsoft)

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Current environment at RIT

• Ad hoc, home grown environments needing staff
  support
• Some faculty need more resources (CAST) while
  others need support for what they already have
  (COS)
• Existing equipment not always stable -- in need
  of upgrades and repairs (e.g. IBM Cluster in
  CASCI, Condor System in CIS)
• Faculty devoting time to systems administration
  when they should be focused on research and grant
  writing

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Examples of unmet research needs

• Astronomy. Gravity models. David Merritt.
• Remote Sensing. Algorithm development, image
  processing. Schott, Rhody.
• CAST. New image compression algorithm
  development. Chance Glenn.
• Physics. Molecular modeling for cataract
  research. George Thurston.
• EE. Autonomous robotics, algorithm development.
  Ferat Sahin.
• CS. Combinatorial Math, Ramsey Numbers. Staczek
  Radziszowski.
• CE. Parallel Computing teaching and research. M.
  Shaban, R. Melton.

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Examples of shared computing systems at RIT
CASCI IBM 52 node cluster ROCKS .6 FTE
temporary Dual AC, heavy duty power Merritt,
Glenn, Melton, Thurston, Rafaelle
EE PSSC 24 node cluster linux PSSC ITS
machine room Sahin et al.
CASCI specialized GRAPE 32 node cluster linux
post-doc ambient air Merrit et al.
IT Mac server MacOS IT sys admin team server
room various IT, CS faculty
CIS Sun Condor 60 workstations cluster Solaris
ad-hoc sys admin open labs server room
Schott, Rhody, et al.
CS Sun Condor 200 workstations cluster Solaris
CS sys admin team open labs Radziowski, et al.
CE Dell 20 workstations cluster linux part of
CE sys admin overcrowded machine room Shaban,
Melton
CS Sun 32 node cluster etc. Solaris CS sys
admin team server room Kaminsky, Tyman, Haake,
et al.
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Direct Benefits

• Save money through economies of scale via
• Centralized FTEs,
• Collocated systems,
• Efficient utility consumption
• Coordinated security
• Shared, effective use of facility spaces
• Increase researchers productivity
• More time on research, less time on technical
  support
• Higher levels of expert support and enhanced
  research collaborations
• Access to greater computational resources
• Advance science ask bigger questions, do better
  science, increase scope of research

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Indirect Benefits

• Enhance RITs prestige
• Provide a competitive advantage with peer
  institutions
• Increase public recognition
• Improve recruitment of faculty, staff and
  students
• Growth opportunities in staff and resources

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Metrics of success

• Increased number of grant proposals
• Greater external funding
• More publications
• More citations

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Plan of action
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• 3 Tier Compute Systems Plan

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Appendix

• What is a grid?
• A Grid is a network of autonomous nodes
  connected together with standard protocols that
  can be accessed by authorized users to
  utilize pooled resources that are in aggregate
  predictable, available, and greater than the sum
  of its parts.
• Ian Foster 7-20-2002

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Appendix

• Types of Grids
• Power
• Compute
• Data
• Visualization
• Collaboration

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Appendix Examples from other institutions

• Computers require support, and providing highly
  skilled software support is costly. In some cases
  the cost is figured in salaries for professional
  systems administrators in other cases the cost
  may be in time diverted from research. Our
  subcommittee focussed on issues related to
  computer software where we believe that steps can
  be taken which can both save money and enhance
  the effectiveness of research computing.
  http//www.astro.princeton.edu/draine/SRCreport/n
  ode1.html

• In the spring of 2004, ITS began an initiative to
  support the research computing needs of the
  faculty at Case.The mission of ITS Research
  Computing is to facilitate cost-effective access
  to IT resources for the research community at
  Case. These resources include high performance
  computing services, system administration
  services, database hosting services, and
  pre-award IT consultation. ITS Research Computing
  is prepared to engage with faculty in
  technologies as they emerge at Case, including,
  for example, visualization and grid technologies,
  and incorporate them into the suite of centrally
  supported services.A major effort of ITS Research
  Computing is the operation of the ITS pilot high
  performance computing cluster. http//wiki.case.ed
  u/Research_computing