SHARCNET nets Award of Excellence
December 4, 2006
The University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) is a member of a consortium of 16 Ontario academic institutions that recently received a Canadian Information Productivity Awards (CIPA) silver Award of Excellence for the innovative Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computing Network (SHARCNET). The award was given at the recent CIPA gala in Toronto, Ontario.
SHARCNET, a high performance computing (HPC) network whose nodes are linked by advanced fibre optics technology, has led the development and deployment of a high performance computing grid, with support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Government of Ontario and its academic and private sector partners.
A multi-institutional consortium of Ontario universities and research institutes of which UOIT has been a member since 2003, SHARCNET accelerates the production of research results in Science, Engineering, Business and the Social Sciences. SHARCNET enables hundreds of computers to link together to form a supercomputer, and represents a significant research tool for its members, including access to HPC, often called supercomputing.
SHARCNET received $48.6 million in infrastructure funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Ontario government, and industrial partners in 2004, which is providing network and computing infrastructure for UOIT and the other member institutions. It recently received an additional $10.9 million grant from the Ontario government this past September.
"HPC allows us to investigate problems that were previously beyond reach, and to conduct Computational Science and Engineering research that has numerous benefits. UOIT's researchers are fortunate to have access to state-of-the-art HPC through our membership in SHARCNET," said Dr. William Smith, dean of the Faculty of Science. "It will also provide core infrastructure for the new UOIT Modelling and Computational Science program, and for the proposed Materials Science program to be delivered jointly with new SHARCNET member Trent University, currently under assessment by the provincial government," he added.
CIPA's awards program commemorates organizations that have applied IT innovation to improve productivity and efficiency throughout the organization. This year, 64 organizations with 75 innovative IT projects competed for 25 Awards of Excellence across four categories.
"SHARCNET is honoured to be recognized as a 2006 CIPA winner", says Hugh Couchman, scientific director of SHARCNET. "CIPA is the leading information-technology and innovation awards program in Canada, and this national recognition is a rewarding reflection of the efforts of the whole SHARCNET team and our partners to improve our resources and services through the use of innovative technology."
With the high-speed network in place, SHARCNET is able to provide services that are transforming the use of HPC for researchers at its member institutions. The number of users has grown exponentially since 2001 to 1,400 researchers representing 16 academic institutions.
The network has already had a significant impact on the researchers from different institutions and disciplines, in areas such as Materials Science, Mathematical Finance, Biocomputing, and Engineering.
One UOIT research group is using high performance computing to study the performance of photovoltaic materials such as silicon solar cells; another is using it for molecular-level simulations to design environmentally benign refrigerants; and yet another to simulate radiation exposure and to predict an individual's level of exposure from a specified radiation source.
SHARCNET, a high performance computing (HPC) network whose nodes are linked by advanced fibre optics technology, has led the development and deployment of a high performance computing grid, with support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Government of Ontario and its academic and private sector partners.
A multi-institutional consortium of Ontario universities and research institutes of which UOIT has been a member since 2003, SHARCNET accelerates the production of research results in Science, Engineering, Business and the Social Sciences. SHARCNET enables hundreds of computers to link together to form a supercomputer, and represents a significant research tool for its members, including access to HPC, often called supercomputing.
SHARCNET received $48.6 million in infrastructure funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Ontario government, and industrial partners in 2004, which is providing network and computing infrastructure for UOIT and the other member institutions. It recently received an additional $10.9 million grant from the Ontario government this past September.
"HPC allows us to investigate problems that were previously beyond reach, and to conduct Computational Science and Engineering research that has numerous benefits. UOIT's researchers are fortunate to have access to state-of-the-art HPC through our membership in SHARCNET," said Dr. William Smith, dean of the Faculty of Science. "It will also provide core infrastructure for the new UOIT Modelling and Computational Science program, and for the proposed Materials Science program to be delivered jointly with new SHARCNET member Trent University, currently under assessment by the provincial government," he added.
CIPA's awards program commemorates organizations that have applied IT innovation to improve productivity and efficiency throughout the organization. This year, 64 organizations with 75 innovative IT projects competed for 25 Awards of Excellence across four categories.
"SHARCNET is honoured to be recognized as a 2006 CIPA winner", says Hugh Couchman, scientific director of SHARCNET. "CIPA is the leading information-technology and innovation awards program in Canada, and this national recognition is a rewarding reflection of the efforts of the whole SHARCNET team and our partners to improve our resources and services through the use of innovative technology."
With the high-speed network in place, SHARCNET is able to provide services that are transforming the use of HPC for researchers at its member institutions. The number of users has grown exponentially since 2001 to 1,400 researchers representing 16 academic institutions.
The network has already had a significant impact on the researchers from different institutions and disciplines, in areas such as Materials Science, Mathematical Finance, Biocomputing, and Engineering.
One UOIT research group is using high performance computing to study the performance of photovoltaic materials such as silicon solar cells; another is using it for molecular-level simulations to design environmentally benign refrigerants; and yet another to simulate radiation exposure and to predict an individual's level of exposure from a specified radiation source.
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