STARKVILLE — “I call it the ‘Giant Calculator,’ and that’s an oversimplification, because it’s a tool that helps any kind of research,” Mike Navicky said Wednesday of Mississippi State University’s supercomputing center. “We can do research in geonomics, we can do research in computational geodynamics. … At the end of the day though, you’re not computing just to compute. You’re computing more than likely to make someone’s life better.”
Navicky, director of MSU’s High Performance Computing Collaboratory, said the group of seven independent computing centers that make up the Collaboratory already tackle advanced tasks such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology and cyber security.
A new facility is set to enhance those abilities further.
The university broke ground on a new High Performance Computing Data Center on Tuesday. The center is designed to be 35,000 square feet and total construction costs are estimated to be $45 million.
It will be located in the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park next to the current High Performance Computing Center at 2 Research Blvd.
Genomics research to help with food insecurity and research into developing more efficient cars are two examples of the problems the new facility will be able to examine through high performance computing, Navicky said. He also said the new center will help to attract more students and more researchers to MSU, as the possibilities for research expand.
“Our current center right now, every square inch is occupied with (computers) and devices and storage that are critical to research at Mississippi State University,” Navicky said. “… A typical computer is air-cooled – like in your house – but we actually do water cooling here because of the amount of electricity we pump into these chips.”
Navicky said the new facility is being built with raised floors that are 14 feet high, though typical data centers only have floors that are raised by 12 to 18 inches. The additional height will allow for other systems required to cool and maintain the research computers.
“Today marks an important step for the future of our university and our state as we build the kind of facility that can keep us at the forefront of high performance computing for years to come,” MSU President Mark Keenum said in a press release.
In the release, Keenum said the center has received support from the Mississippi Legislature, as well as federal agencies like the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
As an institution, MSU ranks fifth in U.S. academic supercomputing capability, according to rankings released this week by TOP500, the press release said. MSU is home to two NOAA-funded systems, Orion and Hercules, that are among the top 20 supercomputers housed at an academic setting. They are both among the top 500 fastest supercomputers in the world.
The new data center was designed by Dale Partners Architects and West Brothers Construction will serve as the general contractor. Crews have already started clearing the land for the new building. Construction is estimated to be finished in 2025.
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