Behind the thick, curved glass wall of the ITS computer room are a dozen or so large computers that make up the nerve center for much of Minnesota State Mankato’s services – the phone system, D2L, MavMail and more. It’s a still, sterile and climate-controlled room with all these machines humming in the kind of ominous unison that turns on science fiction writers.
Standing tall and thin in this room is a guest of sorts, a member of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology. It hasn’t even been named yet, this 8-foot-tall stack of 30 flat, black computers connected to each other to take ordinary computing into hyperspace.
It’s CSET’s new Supercomputer, purchased recently with a $140,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. It’s the kind of computer that will accelerate research taking place throughout the college – transforming what would take months of work into a matter of days.
Faculty researchers in CSET whose work requires high-volume computation now have an on-campus resource. Previously, a Supercomputer was available only through the University of Minnesota, a scenario that prompted three Minnesota State Mankato researchers to seek their own. David Haglin, Rebecca Bates and Patrick Tebbe each have significant research projects underway that will be enhanced by the Supercomputer.
Professional uses for Supercomputers range from oil exploration to weather forecasting – both of which require tons of seismic and climactic data to be computed in order to forecast where oil can be likely found or what the weather will be like in Tacoma on Tuesday.
Haglin, Computer Science chair, is researching ways governments can distribute census data without compromising the privacy of citizens. For instance, while all are guaranteed anonymity in name, a case could be made that unique living characteristics (i.e. a 16-year-old and a widow in the same household in a certain area) could lead to identification.
In his research, Haglin is working with Great Britain’s census division in computations that involve 1.1 million Brits. His research assesses the risk of identification, which is then reported to the British government.
Bates’ area of study is computer-based speech recognition. Most everyone is familiar with some primitive versions of the technology – the customer service hotline that asks you to respond with single words (“yes,” “no” “done.”) But Bates is working toward a far more refined version, a technology that can distinguish – in a crowded room of people talking, for instance – exactly who said what.
It’s the type of programming that requires loads upon loads of variables such as accents, emotional emphasis and environmental noise. And they all require super computation.
“We have to run an awful lot of experiments,” Bates said. “As you add in more context, you’re creating larger models, and that requires more computations.”
There are many different applications for such technology, Bates said – from deciphering who said what at a meeting where people spoke over each other to rescue operations where radio or cell phone communication is rough.
Tebbe’s research in mechanical engineering centers on improving the materials that are used to create semi-conductor products. The physical nature of the production process makes physically studying it extremely difficult, so Tebbe works more with predictions based on variables such as temperature and the vapor pressure.“We're talking eight to ten months for an individual case,” Tebbe said. “We're hoping to get that shrunk down a little bit. (The Supercomputer) really makes that work much more possible. It’s hard to come up with a profile for multiple cases when it takes years to get results.”
The Supercomputer is a college-wide resource. Haglin said he envisions CSET students using it with faculty mentors. For now, other faculty members are already expressing an interest in using it for their work. It has become, Tebbe said, “a research enabler.”
And as technology improves in the future, the Supercomputer can adapt – it’s easily upgraded with no need for overhauling.
“Over time we can add to it and make it larger and more powerful,” Tebbe said.
More information about the Supercomputer can be found at http://cset.mnsu.edu/cis/supercomputer/
Email this article | Permanent link | Topstories news | Topstories news archives
Minnesota State
University, Mankato
Mankato, MN 56001
1-800-722-0544
© 2005-2013 Minnesota State University, Mankato. Minnesota State University, Mankato is a member of
Minnesota State Colleges & Universities system and an affirmative action/equal opportunity university.
