NSF Awards Major Research Instrumentation Grant to UNM

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $350,000 Major Research Instrumentation grant to the University of New Mexico for the purchase and maintenance of a state-of-the-art shared memory high-performance computer.

“The new computer will allow UNM researchers to tackle a wide range of problems in computational science and engineering,” said Principal Investigator, Hua Guo, professor, Chemistry Department. “It will also provide educational opportunities for students interested in high performance computing.”

Computational research plays an increasingly important role in many grand challenge-scale problems in science and engineering. At UNM, a diverse group of investigators are engaged in computationally intensive advanced research projects in physics, chemistry, biology and computer science.

The project, titled “Acquisition of a High Performance Shared-Memory Computer for Computational Science and Engineering,” involves other UNM researchers including: David A. Bader, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Marc S. Ingber, High Performance Computing Center and Mechanical Engineering; Susan Atlas, Physics and Astronomy, and Tudor Oprea, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

In addition to traditional domains of research, there is a growing trend towards interdisciplinary collaborations to address complex problems in systems biology and nanotechnology. The research includes biologically motivated projects that span conventional departmental boundaries — computational biophysics and biochemistry, phylogenetics and virtual drug screening — as well as work in materials science and the quantum control of complex systems.

“This state-of-the-art computer will be operated and maintained by the High Performance Computing Center at UNM, and in addition to supporting the projects detailed in the proposal, it will be made available for general science and engineering research and education use by members of the university community,” said Guo. “This is an effort to improve the research and educational infrastructure of high performance computing at the University of New Mexico.”

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