West Virginia University is reaching out to faculty and student researchers at all college and universities across the Mountain State to boost the state’s scientific capabilities by hosting a high-performance computing summer institute May 14 through 18 at the newly renovated White Hall, downtown campus.

High-performance computing is the use of parallel processing to run advanced computer programs quickly and efficiently. Parallel processing uses multiple possessors to run programs in less time. In early computers, only one program could be run at one time.

High-performance computing is primarily used by scientific researchers, engineers and higher education institutions for complex applications. However, high-performance systems are growing in demand for businesses of all sizes for transaction and data warehouses.

Organizers of the High-Performance Computing Summer Institute explain that a major goal of the event is to jumpstart research efforts throughout West Virginia by helping to provide access to computing resources and expertise.

The Summer Institute is open to all faculty and associated student research staff in West Virginia who are interested in furthering their knowledge of computational research. Some funding for travel/lodging will be provided on a first-come first-serve basis for those participating from institutions within West Virginia but outside of Morgantown.

Students and faculty interested in participating in the Institute should send their name, affiliation, contact information and brief descriptions of computational background, how WVU facilities would be used and specific research goals to wvnano@mail.wvu.edu.

The Institute will consist of faculty research talks, computing module presentations, hands-on assignments and group work based on module presentations. Each student-faculty pair will work with a mentor to achieve research goals.

Topics to be covered during the event include:

• What is high-performance computing?
• Why should I be interested in high-performance computing?
• Cluster computing pros and cons
• Adapting existing code to high-performance computing
• Problems most suited for high-performance computing techniques
• Using Linux in a scientific environment
• Basic introductions to FIREBALL, AMBER, GAUSSIAN, DMOL and plane wave methods
• How can computing enhance experimental results?

The Institute is being sponsored by WVNano, West Virginia Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, National Science Foundation 1003907 and WVU’s High-Performance Computing Group.

For additional information, contact WVNano at (304) 293-7382 or wvnano@mail.wvu.edu.

-WVU-

gg/04/18/12

CONTACT: Aniketa Shinde, WVNano
304.293.7382, Aniketa.Shinde@mail.wvu.edu

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