Supercomputing: Celebrating the CCNI

In the true spirit of the computer age, Rensselaer celebrated the grand opening of the world's most powerful university-based supercomputer with a "virtual" ribbon-cutting ceremony Sept. 7

The "physical" celebration, which was held in the Darrin Communications Center, began with a presidential colloquy involving five of the country's foremost leaders in science, technology, and innovation. The colloquy was followed by a "virtual" grand opening via video link to the Rensselaer Technology Park, where the primary elements of the supercomputer are housed.

The Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations (CCNI), the result of a $100 million partnership involving Rensselaer, IBM, and New York state, was recently ranked seventh in the world, and it is the most powerful of any system based exclusively at a university, according to the 29th edition of the closely watched Top500 list.

The colloquy, titled "The Future of Computationally Enabled Discovery and Innovation", included the Honorable John H. Marburger III, Science Adviser to the President, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy; the Honorable Arden L. Bement Jr., director of the National Science Foundation; John E. Kelly III '78, senior vice president and director of research, IBM Corporation; and Charles M. Vest, president of the National Academy of Engineering. The colloquy was led by President Jackson.

"This new supercomputing center will provide unprecedented opportunities for the Rensselaer community, the Capital Region, the United States, and indeed the entire world", said President Jackson. "It is an extraordinary example of collaboration among academia, industry, and government to advance discovery and innovation".

"The supercomputer is yet another example of the positive synergy that is created when government, higher education, and the private sector work together", said New York State Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno. "In addition to developing innovative, cutting-edge technology, the CCNI will attract advanced technology companies of all sizes while continuing our efforts to create economic opportunities in New York state".

"High-performance computing is playing a growing role in our nation's competitiveness", said Kelly. "The Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations will provide the leadership supercomputing resources required to compete in the global marketplace. CCNI also stands as stellar example of university, government and industry partnership that should serve as a model for delivering supercomputing resources to other regions of the nation and the world. RPI is the ideal technological university to begin this next wave of innovation".

POWERFUL CENTER TO ADVANCE THE SCIENCE OF NANOTECHNOLOGY

In May, Rensselaer announced a $100 million partnership with IBM and New York state to create the world's most powerful university-based supercomputing center, and a top 10 supercomputing center of any kind in the world.

The Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations (CCNI), based on the Rensselaer campus and in the Rensselaer Technology Park, is designed both to help continue the impressive advances in shrinking device dimensions seen by electronics manufactures, and to extend this model to a wide array of industries that could benefit from nanotechnology, according to the partners.

"This new supercomputing center dedicated to nanotechnology will have global impact by finding innovative solutions to the challenges facing the continued productivity growth of the semiconductor industry and enabling key nanotechnology innovations in the fields of energy, biotechnology, arts, and medicine," said President Jackson.

The center will be an important resource for companies of any size--from start-ups to established firms--to perform research that would be impossible without both the computing power and the expert researchers at CCNI.

The computing power also will benefit a wide array of faculty and student research projects at Renselaer, such as in biocomputation, which involves the modeling and simulation of tissue, cell, and genetic behavior. These computing tools will offer powerful new mothods to understand the complex behavior of living organisms.

WELCOME NEW TENANTS

A number of companies recently joined the Tech Park community including:

Portable, Solar-Powered Tag Readers Could Improve Traffic Management... to be tested in the Tech Park and on nearby roadays.

As part of their ongoing effort to imporve traffic management in New York state and across the country, a team of Rensselaer researchers will be testing an array of wireless, solar-powered readers to monitor traffic flow. In the coming months, the units will be deployed to collect traffic data during the morning commute on busy Capital Region roads including in the Tech Park and on Route 4. The portable units, which are based on the same technology as E-ZPass tag readers, could eventually be used to provide valuable data for a variety of applications, from decreasing congestion in work zones to assisting emergency evacuations.

The research is funded through a $3.9 million grant from the Federal Highway Administration to the Center for Infrastructure and Transportation Studies (CITS) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The project also includes collaborators from the New York State Department of Transportation, The New York State Thruway Authority, Mark IV Industries, Inc., Annese & Associates, and North Carolina State University.

"We hope to use this technology to enable better management of our traffic system," said William "Al" Wallace, CITS director and professor of Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems at Rensselaer. In collaboration with Mark IV Industries, he and Jeffrey Wojtowicz, a Research Engineer in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rensselaer, have developed a prototype reader that is powered by solar panels, collects data on a laptop computer, and then sends the information wirelessly back to a server. The portable device sits on a trailer that can be transported by a vehicle with a normal-duty hitch.

"This is the first field experiment of its kind," Wallace said. "The goal here is to collect data, analyze it, and find out if this really works."

Toward safer and more energy - efficient street lighting - A Field Study in the Park

Rensselaer's Lighting Research Center (LRC) is working with Philips Lighting to provide safer roads with a new type of lighting system. The new system should, following basic vision research conducted by the LRC, provide a more complete and better view of the roadway and its surrounding environment. The peak spectral sensitivity of the eye (i.e., what colors are most effective for vision) shifts to shorter (greener) wavelengths under low light levels (e.g., while driving at night). New light sources are being developed by Philips Lighting to take advantage of this phenomenon and improve night-time visibility and therefore traffic safety. An additional benefit of these new lighting systems is that they require lower electric power than conventional light sources to achieve the same visual performance.

The LRC has been leading the world in the science of night-time vision and is now, at the Rensselaer's Technology Park, conducting a field study sponsored by Philips Lighting to extend the basic science into the development of new products, tested in a realistic context. The field study is designed to determine whether drivers can more easily detect moving objects on the side of the road at night (e.g., pedestrians or deer) under the new type of lighting.