NSF Grant Gives Students At Missouri Universities Access To High Performance Computing

(Missouri Western) Students at primarily undergraduate institutions in Missouri will soon have access to greater computing power, thanks to a National Science Foundation grant of nearly $700,000 awarded to Missouri Western State University and three other universities in the state.

The $693,923 grant from the NSF creates the Computational Infusion for Missouri Undergraduate Science and Engineering, composed of Missouri Western, Southeast Missouri State University, Truman State University and Webster University along with the Missouri Research and Education Network (MOREnet) and the University of Missouri System Research Support Services.

The consortium will install a high-performance computing cluster that will allow users to process large quantities of data and perform highly complex calculations much faster than a typical desktop or laptop computer.

The 20 nodes in the cluster will be housed at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Priority access will be granted to consortium members comprised of primarily undergraduate institutions in the state. Students and faculty will be able to use the computing power for research and educational exercises. The goal is that this statewide project can be replicated nationwide.

The grant will give some promising students the opportunity to learn even more about high-performance computing. They will receive funding to attend a summer workshop and learn more about the subject, then come back to their home campuses as student leaders, possibly as teaching assistants.

The consortium hopes to have the high-performance computing cluster operational and available for use by Fall 2024.