{"id":6253,"date":"2021-04-29T09:08:47","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T14:08:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=6253"},"modified":"2021-04-29T09:08:47","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T14:08:47","slug":"uw-eau-claire-hpe-collaboration-a-powerful-partnership","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-eau-claire-hpe-collaboration-a-powerful-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-Eau Claire, HPE collaboration a powerful partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"
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UW-Eau Claire Chancellor James Schmidt talks about a new public-private collaboration between Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the university at a Monday press conference. Pictured in the video screen is Mayo Clinic Health System Dr. Rajeev Chaudhry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire can engage in more high-performance, data-driven research thanks to a new public-private collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise that dramatically increases the university\u2019s supercomputing processing power.<\/p>\n

Contributions totaling more than $700,000 from HPE, the National Science Foundation and UW-Eau Claire are enabling the university to purchase a high-performance computing cluster\/supercomputing cluster and develop the Blugold Center for High-Performance Computing.<\/p>\n

HPE contributed $363,426 in hardware and UW-Eau Claire contributed $20,000 to the project. A $350,000 National Science Foundation grant also supports the center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the National Science Foundation, UW-Eau Claire is the first university in the United States to use HPE\u2019s Apollo servers with the Cray hardware called Slingshot,\u201d UW-Eau Claire Chancellor James Schmidt says. \u201cThis investment epitomizes the power of partnerships to drive innovation and provide mutual benefits. Not only do UW-Eau Claire\u2019s students gain the chance to conduct research in areas ranging from deep learning and artificial intelligence to data mining and computational number theories, HPE\u2019s leaders and technicians can now pioneer new technologies and receive expert feedback from our talented faculty and staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

The additional 61 computer servers at an off-campus regional data center at Chippewa Valley Technical College can do some computations up to 100 times faster than what is possible with the existing Blugold Supercomputing Cluster that has 25 servers in UW-Eau Claire\u2019s Phillips Science Hall.<\/p>\n

\u201dAs HPE considered where to locate our Global Center of Excellence for Performance Computer Manufacturing, the advantages of staying in Chippewa Falls became clearer and clearer as we engaged Chancellor Schmidt and UW-Eau Claire faculty and staff,\u201d\u00a0 says Adam Bauer, director of Issues and Policy Communications for Hewlett Packard Enterprise. \u201cAs a future-focused organization manufacturing supercomputers just up the road from this campus, the opportunity to partner with the university was a no-brainer. Together, we can advance research in Eau Claire to levels commensurate with any major university in the country. At the same time, students will have the opportunity to learn and work with us as undergraduates, laying a strong foundation for future employment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The high-performance computing cluster at the regional data center form the Bose Cluster, named after Indian mathematician and physicist Satyendra Noth Bose. The powerful servers will provide UW-Eau Claire undergraduates with even more high-impact learning opportunities as the university becomes a regional hub of high-performance computing, says Dr. Sudeep Bhattacharyay, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the major goals of this university is to provide research opportunities to as many students as possible,\u201d Bhattacharyay says. \u201cThis new computing facility can offer a large number of students this high-impact practice without any further investment. Our hope is that this increased computational power will also increase the innovative discovery of the undergraduate students on this campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

The original cluster on campus cannot handle the growing demand for computer processing power at UW-Eau Claire, say Bhattacharyay and Dr. Ying Ma, associate professor in materials science and biomedical engineering. Bhattacharyay and Ma wrote the NSF proposal and received the $350,000 grant.<\/p>\n

The increased capacity provided by the regional data center will meet UW-Eau Claire\u2019s teaching and research needs for the foreseeable future, Ma says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHPE really is a big deal for us because the current cluster we have right now really limits what we can do in the cluster,\u201d Ma says. \u201cThis new cluster opens many new doors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ma and Chip Eckardt, senior information processing consultant at UW-Eau Claire, say computational science is becoming increasingly important in all branches of science.<\/p>\n

\u201cComputational science, which requires high performance computing, is going to be absolutely where everybody wants to be in the next three to five years,\u201d Eckardt says.<\/p>\n

Calling the regional data center \u201ca huge deal,\u201d Eckardt says the computing upgrade places the university on a par with doctoral universities that participate in the highest levels of research activity, classified as Research 1 by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.<\/p>\n

Supercomputing demand exceeds capacity<\/h3>\n

UW-Eau Claire\u2019s supercomputing history dates to 2008, when the chemistry department purchased a small cluster of servers for $25,000.<\/p>\n

The Blugold Supercomputing Cluster started in 2014, but campus demand for high-performance computing quickly outpaced capacity.<\/p>\n

Multiple academic departments \u2014 biology, chemistry and biochemistry, computer science, geology, mathematics, materials science and biomedical engineering, and physics and astronomy \u2014 now use the cluster, but many more departments will have access to it with the additional computing power of the Bose Cluster.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the departments of chemistry and biochemistry there are several research groups that are dependent on this high-performance computing, as well as materials science,\u201d Bhattacharyay says. \u201cThere are a number of other university departments that depend on simulation, not just quantum mechanics-based computation practices, but other different molecular simulations. All faculty will have a very strong interest in this high-performance computing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deep learning<\/h3>\n

The additional computer processing capacity is \u201creally a game-changer\u201d for UW-Eau Claire, says Dr. Rahul Gomes, an assistant professor of computer science.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at this as a beginning of a new era where UW-Eau Claire emerges as the hub of deep learning and image processing in the entire Midwest,\u201d Gomes says.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeep learning\u201d is a subset of machine learning that derives its working logic from the functioning of the brain. Due to its high accuracy, deep learning finds application in self-driving cars that process high-resolution images on the fly.<\/p>\n

The Bose Cluster will provide the computing power undergraduate researchers at UW-Eau Claire need as they learn how to apply deep learning to process big data, Gomes says. By logging into the cluster, students can experience how supercomputers operate, submit jobs and process images in batches.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the problems in deep learning for image classification is that it requires a lot of computing power, especially graphics processing units,\u201d says Gomes, who joined the UW-Eau Claire faculty in 2020. \u201cMost of the time we have to resort to other external resources in order to process those data sets which require significant time and introduce compatibility issues. But if our students get the experience of processing data sets at the university itself, it will definitely be a good experience for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell my students we have a supercomputing cluster where we can process all our data. And students get to do it. It\u2019s pretty exciting to see that here. Being a new professor at this university, it opens up a lot of opportunity for me in collaboration and research. It\u2019s pretty awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, the additional processing power will allow the computer science and geography departments to collaborate to process high-resolution satellite images, Gomes says.<\/p>\n

Biology researchers spend considerable time in the field, but also use new technologies to generate genomic sequence data for hundreds of individual organisms with multiple sequences, says Dr. Nora Mitchell, assistant professor of biology. Mitchell expects to have sequence data for her students to analyze in the coming months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might get several thousands of pieces of data per individual,\u201d Mitchell says. \u201cWhen we go to analyze that data, it requires a lot of computing power to analyze and process all of those samples. For many students, we don\u2019t have the software that they would need. But if we have it on the computing cluster we can run it all together, freeing up myself to do teaching and for students to do their other coursework.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell says the supercomputing cluster allows students to experience research opportunities ordinarily only found at major research institutions, including using supercomputing tools to work on their own research.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften students think that computer science or coding can be intimidating, but having this computer cluster is an amazing resource and really helps students to scaffold those skills,\u201d Mitchell says. \u201cIt shows them that it\u2019s not scary, but really exciting, to be working with your own data and getting results from samples students collected and analyzed. That\u2019s a really big reward for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Mckenzie West, assistant professor of mathematics, also sees the possibilities in using the supercomputing cluster. For example, she hopes to use the supercomputing cluster in her computational number theory course, allowing her students to compute properties of large numbers and solve difficult equations.<\/p>\n

Medical applications<\/h3>\n

High-resolution images also are a key in the biomedical field, Ma says. The Bose cluster creates yet another opportunity for UW-Eau Claire faculty and students to collaborate with its partner Mayo Clinic Health System physicians and others.<\/p>\n

\u201cMedical science has become increasingly data driven,\u201d Ma says. \u201cYou need a lot of data to make an informed decision, a diagnosis or treatment. This cluster will be the perfect tool to collect those data, analyze those data and then benefit medical science.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seeing UW-Eau Claire and Mayo Clinic Health System working together using the computer cluster may inspire other Chippewa Valley industries to consider how they also could benefit from the technology, Bhattacharyay says. Additional collaborations could help other businesses as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be a synergy if some other industries see that high-performance computing is being used for teaching purposes and research purposes in a university like ours,\u201d Bhattacharyay says. \u201cOur cluster has all these different capacities, all these different capabilities, so that will open different industries, different institutions that can come to us and we can satisfy their different needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students gain experience in supercomputing operations<\/h3>\n

The supercomputing cluster gave Alyssa Huelsbeck, a senior from Little Chute, an opportunity to perform \u201cincredibly relevant\u201d COVID-19 research during her biophysical chemistry course in fall 2020. Bhattacharyay, the course instructor, allowed students to continue their research with the supercomputer cluster during the spring semester, giving them a deeper scientific understanding of the research, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe supercomputing cluster has been great because we\u2019ve gotten to do a lot of research on the structure of the virus without having to do the wet-lab work,\u201d Huelsbeck says. \u201cWe\u2019ve been able to get a lot of data and it\u2019s been relatively straightforward using the supercomputing cluster, so it\u2019s been a great resource this semester.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s incredible to be working on coronavirus research while still an undergraduate student, says Huelsbeck, a biochemistry\/molecular biology and Spanish major.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world\u2019s top scientists right now are working on coronavirus research and we\u2019re undergraduate students getting firsthand experience with the supercomputing cluster,\u201d Huelsbeck says. \u201cIt is an amazing experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huelsbeck is among the UW-Eau Claire students to present their research this spring at the virtual National Conference on Undergraduate Research.<\/p>\n

Gomes says Blugolds who have supercomputing operations skills will have an advantage when looking for their first jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce they start applying for positions in companies, they can actually say they did a lot of machine learning and used our Blugold Supercomputing Cluster to do that machine learning,\u201d Gomes says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a completely new discipline, and the fact that we have it here in order to test our codes and give our students an opportunity to test our codes, it\u2019s basically expanding the curriculum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bhattacharyay agrees, noting that the supercomputing cluster will create experiences undergraduate students are not likely to find elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can train students, we can provide the opportunity for them to actually try their ideas on the cluster and even to make some mistakes,\u201d Bhattacharyay says. \u201cThat opportunity is unique; it\u2019s not like you can get that experience anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

A team of UW-Eau Claire students manage the supercomputing cluster. Previous student administrators have received internships and found jobs because of their experience, Bhattacharyay says.<\/p>\n

HPE\u2019s involvement in the project creates even more opportunities for students, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason we are so thrilled is because HPE has an assembly unit in Chippewa Falls where they bring all those computing nodes and equipment and assemble them,\u201d Bhattacharyay says. \u201cHaving a collaboration with HPE will give our students a lot of opportunity in terms of training and high-performance computing maintenance. Students can learn high-performance computing maintenance and serve the entire campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bhattacharyay says local schools and their teachers also will use the computer cluster through summer training programs.<\/p>\n

Supercomputing\u2019s link to Chippewa Falls<\/h3>\n

UW-Eau Claire is the first university in the U.S. to run the Cray hardware called Slingshot with HPE\u2019s Apollo servers, which significantly increases processing speeds moving data to and from the servers, Eckardt says.<\/p>\n

Like Bhattacharyay, Eckardt believes HPE\u2019s involvement in the project makes the collaboration even more valuable. Eckardt grew up in Chippewa Falls and remembers the impact Cray Research and its founder, Seymour Cray, had on the region. Now that HPE owns Cray, it makes sense for UW-Eau Claire to partner with the company, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can help HPE with doing research and testing for them and maybe we end up doing training of their users,\u201d Eckardt says. \u201cThe possibilities are amazing and the support people are literally 22 miles down the road. You don\u2019t find that anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Written by\u00a0Gary Johnson<\/a><\/h6>\n

For the Media<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n