Research Computing

IS&T supports Georgia State University cyberinfrastructure for research computing, including high performance computing, grid computing, data storage and visualization.

Georgia State's core research computing resources include:

• IBM System p7-755 (CARINA) 
• Visualization Wall (200 Million pixels) 
• IBM Cluster 1350 (OCTANS) 
• SURAgrid
• World Community Grid

Georgia State is building a diverse and powerful supercomputing grid to support a growing body of academic and scientific research. Researchers include more than 100 faculty and Ph.D. students from many disciplines as well as from other universities such as Georgia Southern University and Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) sites such as Virginia Commonwealth University, Louisiana State University and University of Delaware.

Experiencing increasing demand for supercomputer resources has led to a university-wide strategy to build computational resources and services that support a wide variety of disciplines, with an special focus the University’s strategic areas of focus, such as Molecular Basis of Disease (http://www.biology.gsu.edu/mbd/) and Brains & Behavior (http://www.biology.gsu.edu/brains&behavior/). As researchers in chemistry, biology, computer science, finance and other disciplines gain access to more capacity and capability, they naturally are expanding their research goals and thereby driving demand.

Research Computing News

April 2012 - Geoscience student Semir Sarajlic placed first in the Graduate division for his paper, "Land cover change and mineral composite assessment of Tushka depression, in Egypt, using remote sensing and GIS."  Semir's paper acknowledges the contribution of the Visualization Wall in accomplishing his high-resolution analysis and visualization.

May 2011 - Research Computing - GSU researcher discovers new method to provide better understanding of plant life

A Georgia State University scientist has found a new way to simulate data in examining processes during photosynthesis, a method which will lead to a better understanding of how plants work.

November 2010 - Visualization Wall - Visualizing the Future

On the fourth floor of the Petit Science Center, students in Jeremy Crampton's geography class stand before a glowing concave bank of computer screens. Crampton encourages his students, who gaze with amazement, to use wireless keyboards and mice to zoom in and out of the 3D renderings, which depict downtown Atlanta side by side with old planning maps of the city from the 1950s.

September 21, 2010 - Research Computing - Georgia State receives $6.7 million grant for research center in health disparities

The National Institutes of Health has awarded Georgia State University with a five-year grant to start a new Center for Excellence in Health Disparities Research, which will investigate health disparity issues in Atlanta’s urban environment.

June 28, 2010 - Visualization Wall - Inside the Petit Science Center

Georgia State University's new Parker H. Petit Science Center, located at the intersection of Decatur Street and Piedmont Avenue, opened in March 2010 and houses programs in biology, chemistry, nutrition, physical and respiratory therapies, public health and the Neuroscience Institute.

May 2010 - Visualization Wall - 200 Million, 200x HD Video Wall for Georgia State University

At the heart of Georgia State University's Petit Science Center is a +196 million pixel, 27ft wide curved Video Wall designed, built, and installed by CineMassive Displays. Believed to be the highest resolution visualization wall in the Southeast, the Georgia State Video Wall is distinguished by both its high resolution and its high level of usability.

October 31, 2008 - URSA / SURAgrid - University Consortia Grows Hardware Partnership with IBM

The Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) announced today a significant milestone in their partnership with IBM to help grow the high performance grid computing infrastructure for the southeastern U.S. research and education community; the addition of 86 IBM p575+ HPC nodes to augment existing systems purchased by four SURA member institutions: Louisiana State University, Georgia State University, Texas A&M University the University of Miami.

February 22, 2008 - OCTANS / SURAgrid - Georgia State’s new supercomputer allows for cutting-edge research

Eric Hurst wants to know who is really in control of our country, and the Georgia State doctoral student in political science is using the university’s new supercomputer to get to the bottom of it. Georgia State recently purchased an IBM System Cluster 1350 supercomputer through a partnership program between IBM and Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA), a consortium of more than 60 research institutions.

February 2008 - URSA / SURAgrid - More for Le$$

Georgia State University was the first SURAgrid site to have its IBM System p5 up and running and connected to the SURAgrid. And users are still lining up to use it.

July 6, 2007 - World Community Grid - Helping humanity and advancing research technology - Georgia State University joins the World Community Grid

Fighting AIDS and muscular dystrophy are just two of the humanitarian efforts Georgia State University will help to support with computing as the first Georgia higher-education partner of IBM's World Community Grid.

May 2007 - URSA / SURAgrid - IBM helps Georgia State University contribute a powerful building block to a supercomputing grid

With more than 60 member schools, the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) is committed to using technology to foster collaborative research in a variety of fields, from science and engineering to the liberal arts. In 2003, Georgia State University was among a group of pioneering SURA members to build SURAgrid—a shared computing infrastructure that leverages a rich set of distributed resources for faculty research.