While Southern Methodist University has long been a player in the high-powered computing game, the institution is upping its supercomputing capacity.
In an effort to help the university reach R1 research status and bolster the region's talent in artificial intelligence, it has invested $11.5 million in supercomputing hardware and software in a partnership with California tech firm Nvidia.
“This partnership will put us in the fast lane for artificial intelligence,” said R. Gerald Turner, SMU president, in a statement. “Research universities like ours have an obligation to actively engage in the development and application of AI for societal good, and this partnership gives us the tools to do it.”
Michael Hites, SMU’s chief information officer, said the university’s relationship with Nvidia, which has worked with its Guildhall video game program, dates back to 2017 with the installation of its upgraded, high-powered computing system, colloquially called “ManeFrame II.”
Using Nvidia’s parallel processing technology, the new supercomputer has a theoretical computing power of 100 petaflops – or about 100 quadrillion operations per second. Under the partnership, Nvidia will provide direct access to professionals to help show students and faculty how to use the technology for their research.
“Our new machine has over a million processors in it, so you can divide up calculations to all of those processors, which allows you to do the artificial intelligence calculations,” Hites said.
With the new technology, Hites said SMU plans to look at AI solutions to practical human-centric solutions. He pointed toward potential use cases in areas like language processing for education, cybersecurity and using algorithms to aid in drug development, adding that providing access to both students and faculty across campus will promote cross-collaboration among disciplines.
And Hites hopes the benefits of the supercomputer won’t be confined behind university walls. Pointing towards partnerships SMU has with companies like Google, AT&T and Hewlett Packard, he said the technology has the potential to increase the amount of AI talent in the local pipeline.
“If we can help create students in AI through SMU, or have companies that work with us… we can bolster artificial intelligence in the DFW area,” Hites said.
Investing in new technology will likely come with new faculty hires at SMU, Hites said. SMU Provost Elizabeth Loboa previously told NTX Inno the university has been investing in research and bringing on hires whose expertise crosses disciplines in the past year.
The announcement comes amid a $1.5 billion fundraising campaign the university kicked off in September to invest in things like research, financial aid services and community partnerships. The effort comes as SMU is looking to achieve Carnegie Commission on Higher Education's R1 classification in the next decade – a designation awarded to public and private institutions nationally, identifying them as places of "very high" research activity.
“We're setting up the infrastructure with this computer and the partnership with the NVIDIA training, so as the provost and the deans hire more faculty that are working in AI, they have the tools that they need to succeed,” Hites said.
