NUIT Expands Advanced Research Computing Services

Over the summer, Northwestern University Information Technology (NUIT) completed the installation of Quest - the University's first large-scale, shared, High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster - to provide HPC at the enterprise level for University researchers.

This new advanced research computing service is in support of the University's multi-year initiative to develop an infrastructure that meets current research needs, anticipate future growth, and foster collaborations among researchers and educators.

Quest's architecture supports the multiple types of processing required for researchers at Northwestern to conduct scientific investigations, produce advanced visualizations, and optimize their applications for larger HPC environments at other sites, such as the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and the Argonne National Lab.

This fall a small group of University researchers are serving as early adopters of Quest to test processes and procedures. The system will be available for use to the general research community beginning winter quarter.

NUIT has produced a video documentary to provide an inside look at the installation of Quest including commentary from Northwestern faculty and staff about its impact on research at the University.

In addition, Research Computing@NU is a new Web site recently launched for the research community. Northwestern researchers can engage in discussion forums focused upon high performance computing topics, comment upon feature articles that highlight the computational work of Northwestern faculty, and read about research computing activities and workshops at the University.

The University's new HPC environment provides a core resource for the diverse community of Northwestern research faculty and research staff. In addition, providing HPC at the enterprise level allows for researchers to utilize grant monies otherwise allocated to acquiring research equipment.

University researchers and educators are eligible to request an allocation of time on Quest for use in early winter quarter as computational investigators (CI's) through an online application.

University students and collaborators may also have access to Quest allocations at the request of the CI.

NUIT Academic & Research Technologies
art-support@northwestern.edu