Meet Aster: Northwestern’s New GPU Cluster Has a Name

After hundreds of name submissions and nearly 800 votes from the Northwestern community, the University’s new GPU computing cluster has a name: Aster.

Northwestern faculty, staff, and students were invited this summer to help name the powerful new computing resource, which is being developed by Northwestern IT in partnership with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. More than 200 name suggestions were submitted before the field was narrowed for a community vote.

Over the two-week voting period, 790 votes were cast. After the results were weighted, Aster finished first with a score of 944, followed closely by DeepDish with 879. Dobson, with 507, rounded out the top three.

Aster was submitted by Northwestern student Lizhuo (Eleanor) Zhou. The name draws inspiration from the purple aster flower and Northwestern’s signature color. It also comes from the Greek word for “star,” giving the name connections to exploration, navigation, and discovery.

“Its stellar association also evokes navigation toward true north, symbolizing direction, exploration, and the cluster’s role in powering ambitious research across the Northwestern community,” Zhou wrote in her submission.

A New Resource for Northwestern Research

Aster is expected to launch in summer 2027 and will significantly expand the University’s GPU computing capacity. The cluster will be co-located at NCSA and is being designed to support computationally intensive research across disciplines, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, large-scale data analytics, scientific simulations, and other GPU-accelerated applications.

The new cluster represents a significant expansion of the advanced computing resources available to Northwestern researchers and a new approach to meet growing demand for AI and other GPU-based computing. By hosting the system at NCSA, Northwestern can take advantage of facilities specifically designed for large-scale high-performance computing while creating a more sustainable and flexible path for future growth.

As work continues on Aster ahead of its planned launch, Northwestern IT will share additional information about the new service and opportunities for researchers to learn more.

Read more about the new GPU computing cluster and Northwestern’s partnership with NCSA.