Andromeda HPC cluster to merge into Unity HPC/AI system at MGHPCC

 

Andromeda–> Unity HPC Transition Plan

Over the last few years, we have built an entirely new HPC/AI environment, support system and infrastructure in partnership with UMass Amherst called UNITY: https://unity.uri.edu. We have received very positive feedback on Unity from all types of HPC/AI users at URI, and just performed a major upgrade to the system increasing capacity for URI users by ~50%. Unity is located at the MGHPCC, which is a cutting-edge near-zero Carbon facility specially designed for research computing by major research universities in our region. 

Andromeda is a much older computational resource sited at URI. It has an aging storage system, obsolete security infrastructure and consumes ~18 kW of energy that results in ~40 metric tons of CO2 in the atmosphere per year. Moreover, our small support team at URI has difficulty with supporting 2 different major computational systems at multiple locations, especially given that we are in the process of building 2 additional systems (Sanctuary and Harmony) at MGHPCC.

For these reasons, we are considering transitioning URI users away from Andromeda to Unity over the next few months. Once the transition is complete, we will relocate viable Andromeda hardware and merge it into Unity so that there is minimal loss of compute capacity for URI. 

Here are the details of this transition plan: 

  • Our team will offer focussed support to Andromeda users to aid their transition to Unity over the next few months. 
  • Research data transfer to Unity would be the top priority right from the beginning. Since some data transfers may take a long time, we will not set a deadline for moving data off the NAS storage systems attached to Andromeda.  
  • After May 30th, we will shut down the Andromeda compute nodes thus halting the execution of any future jobs. And we will change the filesystem to read-only mode. Users would still be able to migrate their files over to Unity.
  • We will schedule a full shutdown of Andromeda at URI on July 1st. We will package and ship the viable Andromeda hardware to the MGHPCC and have it integrated into Unity and make it available by September 1st. 

Please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions or concerns.

URI Speed Networking Event for Graduate & Senior Students

Invitation: URI Speed Networking Event for Graduate & Senior Students (AI, Quantum, and Computationally Enhanced Research & Innovation) 

Friday April 11, 2025, 9:30-noon

Galanti Lounge, 3rd Floor, URI Library

by

Center for Computational Research, ITS (Joan Peckham & Gaurav Khanna)

URI Innovation Lab (Jim McGwin)

URI Division of Research and Economic Development (Karen Markin)

PURPOSE: To assist graduate and senior students engaged in research and/or innovation at URI to find collaborators from across campus, and to attend to increased need for interdisciplinary, convergence1, use-inspired2, and data enabled research and innovation.

APPROACH: This event will provide a means for students of all disciplines who are active in research and/or innovation to meet and find collaborators from other disciplines. This includes:

  • Student researchers or innovators of any discipline searching for partners with analytical, and/or computational expertise, or
  • Student researchers or innovators with applied and/or theoretical data, quantum computing, mathematics, statistics or AI/analysis/management expertise wishing to partner with researchers and/or innovators from other disciplines.

The goal is to explore interdisciplinary research collaborations that can strengthen research/innovation projects and better prepare participants for careers that increasingly call for interdisciplinary data and computationally enhanced collaborations.  URI students of all disciplines who are actively engaged in research and innovation are invited.

PROCESS: We will use a structured and timed speed dating approach that will give each scholar short segments of time to exchange their expertise, interests, and innovative ideas with other participants. At the end we will provide a pizza and beverages, but all will be welcome to stay and further discuss promising collaborations.

Registration by Friday, April 4, 2025 (So that we can order food): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSflirdAKzDdSL-iJiU9m38gcQ1W3dTua78YkJTt9aB78AdnlQ/viewform?usp=dialog

Questions? Contact jpeckham@uri.edu (Joan Peckham)

 

[1] Convergence Research (https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/learn/research-types/learn-about-convergence-research): It is driven by a specific and compelling problem, whether that problem arises from deep scientific questions or pressing societal needs. It shows deep integration across disciplines. Convergence research intentionally brings together intellectually diverse researchers to develop effective ways of communicating across disciplines. As experts from different disciplines pursue a common research challenge, their knowledge, theories, methods, data and research communities increasingly intermingle. 

[2] Use-Inspired Research – From NSF solicitation on AI Institutes – NSF 22502 (https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2022/nsf22502/nsf22502.htm):  We use the phrase “use-inspired” rather than “applied” to emphasize that this solicitation seeks to support work that goes beyond merely applying known techniques and adds new knowledge and understanding in both foundational AI and use-inspired domains. Ideally there is a virtuous cycle between foundational and use-inspired research, where foundational results provide a starting point for use-inspired research, and the results from use-inspired research are generalized and made foundational.

Spring Semester Workshops by URI CCR / AI Lab

Welcome back! The details of our CCR / AI Lab semester workshops are presented below. These are open to faculty, staff and students and are totally free. 

https://docs.unity.uri.edu/news/2025/01/uri-spring-25-workshops/
You can also find these on the URI events calendar (and subscribe): https://events.uri.edu/group/ai

We have some relatively new workshop offerings on AI Tools, Gen AI and Bioinformatics. A huge thanks to Indrani Mandal and our student team for planning and preparing these workshops!

Major Unity Upgrade!

We are pleased to announce that a major upgrade to our primary HPC/AI platform UNITY is finally complete! We have added:

1,000 CPU-cores: 16, 64-core CPU nodes that are identical to our current nodes in the uri-cpu partition.
24 AI GPUs: 4 nodes with 4 Nvidia L40S GPUs each; 2 nodes with 4 Nvidia H100 GPU nodes.

Moreover, snapshots are available for /project, in addition to /work and /home; so you can do file recovery. And there is 500TB more scratch space available at /scratch3. Finally, new documentation has been added with a new “Get Help” section.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out for assistance with these!

RICHAMP wins award at PEARC!

Received a wonderful note from Dr. Ginis: Pranav Sai received the award for the best abstract at PEARC24 held in Providence last summer. He presented RICHAMP and its implementation on URI nodes at MGHPCC for real-time storm forecasting. 

CCR supported student awarded fellowship!

Matt Paolella, a formerly supported the CCR on an NSF Cyberteams CAREERS grant, was awarded the Moissan Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship for the summer of 2024 (One per year from the American Chemical Society, Division of Fluorine Chemistry). His application for this fellowship was largely built on the basis of his CAREERS project. Matt also plan to submit a manuscript, with him as the first author, this month to report the discovery from his CAREERS project. 

Matt’s faculty advisor is Dr. Fang Wang from the Dept. of Chemistry. 

Speed Networking Event AI, Quantum, and Computationally Enhanced Research & Innovation

Invitation, URI Speed Networking Event

AI, Quantum, and Computationally Enhanced Research & Innovation  

Friday October 11, 2024, 9:30-noon

Galanti Lounge, 3rd Floor, URI Library

Center for Computational Research, ITS (Joan Peckham & Gaurav Khanna)

URI Innovation Lab (Jim McGwin)

College of Business, Business Analytics and AI (Drew Zhang)

 URI Division of Research and Economic Development (Karen Markin)

 

PURPOSE: To support scholars at URI to respond to solicitations that increasingly request interdisciplinary, convergence1, use-inspired2, and data enabled research. 

APPROACH: This event will provide a means for scholars of all disciplines with computational needs, and applied & theoretical data, quantum computing, mathematics, statistics and AI/analysis/management scholars to meet and explore interdisciplinary research collaborations that can result in publications, external funding and/or startups.  URI scholars and students of all disciplines who are actively engaged in research and innovation are invited.

PROCESS: We will use a structured and timed speed dating approach that will give each scholar short segments of time to exchange their expertise, interests, and innovative ideas with other participants. Snack and beverages will be available upon arrival. At the end we will provide a grab and go lunch, but all will be welcome to stay and further discuss promising collaborations. 

Registration by Friday, October 4, 2024 (So that we can order food): https://forms.gle/YHsFW3bRhhjgsw7B8

Questions? Contact jpeckham@uri.edu (Joan Peckham)

 

1 Convergence Research (https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/learn/research-types/learn-about-convergence-research): It is driven by a specific and compelling problem, whether that problem arises from deep scientific questions or pressing societal needs. It shows deep integration across disciplines. Convergence research intentionally brings together intellectually diverse researchers to develop effective ways of communicating across disciplines. As experts from different disciplines pursue a common research challenge, their knowledge, theories, methods, data and research communities increasingly intermingle. 

 

2 Use-Inspired Research – From NSF solicitation on AI Institutes – NSF 22502 (https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2022/nsf22502/nsf22502.htm):  We use the phrase “use-inspired” rather than “applied” to emphasize that this solicitation seeks to support work that goes beyond merely applying known techniques and adds new knowledge and understanding in both foundational AI and use-inspired domains. Ideally there is a virtuous cycle between foundational and use-inspired research, where foundational results provide a starting point for use-inspired research, and the results from use-inspired research are generalized and made foundational.

 

—

The Better Scientific Software (BSSw) Fellowship Program

The Better Scientific Software (BSSw) Fellowship Program recognizes and promotes leaders and advocates of high-quality software who foster practices, processes, and tools that help to improve scientific productivity and software sustainability. Each selected 2025 BSSw Fellow will receive up to $25,000 for an activity that promotes better scientific software. The deadline for apps is Sept. 30. Find out more here: https://bssw.io/pages/bssw-fellowship-program