How the Ohio Supercomputer Center Drives the Future of Computing - Ep. 213
Feb 21, 2024
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Alan Chalker, Director of strategic programs at the Ohio Supercomputer Center, discusses their Open OnDemand program and its impact. He also talks about the collaboration with NASCAR for simulating race car designs. The podcast explores the history of the Ohio Supercomputer Center, the use of supercomputers in art design, and the future of computing.
The Ohio Supercomputer Center's Open OnDemand program empowers Ohio higher education institutions and industries with accessible, reliable, and secure computational services and training programs.
The Ohio Supercomputer Center is working with client companies like NASCAR to virtually simulate and test race car designs, achieving the same results with significantly reduced hardware costs through GPU acceleration.
Deep dives
The Ohio Supercomputers Center provides accessible computational services
The Ohio Supercomputers Center (OSC) is an essential resource for Ohio higher education institutions and private industry. OSC offers accessible and secure computational services, including GPUs and AI applications, through its open on-demand program. The program was created in response to the increasing need for supercomputing access. Ohio University art students, for example, can now use iPads to access supercomputers for design work. OSC is the first state-funded supercomputer center and has been serving diverse scientific disciplines with its high-performance computers.
Understanding Supercomputers and Open On Demand
Supercomputers are powerful machines used by researchers, scientists, and engineers to perform complex computations. The Ohio Supercomputer Center has been providing state-of-the-art supercomputing resources since its establishment in the mid-80s. Over time, the center has evolved to support a wide range of scientific disciplines, with over 42 different fields utilizing OSC's resources. Open on Demand is a web-based interface developed by OSC that allows users to easily access and utilize the center's resources. The platform has become a standard tool for accessing supercomputing resources worldwide, with over 700 computing centers across 62 countries using it.
Evolving Uses for Supercomputers and GPU Acceleration
The uses of supercomputers have expanded greatly over the years. While traditional core sciences like astronomy and computational chemistry were early adopters, now diverse fields like horticulture and crop science are leveraging supercomputing resources as well. The Ohio Supercomputer Center plays a vital role in supporting these various disciplines. Additionally, the center has been working with NASCAR, allowing engineers to virtually simulate and test modifications to race cars using computational fluid dynamics. By transitioning to GPU acceleration, NASCAR can achieve the same simulation results with significantly reduced hardware costs.
Future Directions for Open On Demand and Supercomputing
The Ohio Supercomputer Center's open on-demand program is constantly evolving to meet the needs of its users. They recently received funding from the National Science Foundation to facilitate the transition of open on demand into a thriving open-source ecosystem. The center also places strong emphasis on education and training programs to ensure Ohioans stay at the forefront of technology. Looking ahead, the center recognizes the acceleration of technology in areas like AI and plans to invest in more GPU technology to support growing demands. The future of supercomputing lies in broader access, evolving tools, and continued advancement in GPU acceleration.
NASCAR races are all about speed, but even the fastest cars need to factor in safety, especially as rules and tracks change. The Ohio Supercomputer Center is ready to help. In this episode of NVIDIA’s AI Podcast, host Noah Kravitz speaks with Alan Chalker, the director of strategic programs at the OSC, about all things supercomputing. The center’s Open OnDemand program, which takes the form of a web-based interface, empowers Ohio higher education institutions and industries with accessible, reliable and secure computational services and training and educational programs. Chalker dives into the history and evolution of the OSC, and explains how it’s working with client companies like NASCAR, which is simulating race car designs virtually. Tune in to learn more about Chalker’s outlook on the future of supercomputing and OSC’s role in realizing it.
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