Rutgers-IBM Computing Center to Manage Big Data

RMN Digital | March 27, 2012 | Americas, Backend, Enterprise, Regions | No Comments

Rutgers today (March 27) formally launched a high-performance computing (HPC) center at the university focused on the application of “Big Data” analytics in life sciences, finance, and other industries.

The center is aimed at improving the economic competitiveness of New Jersey’s public and private research organizations.

The HPC center will be part of the newly created Rutgers Discovery Informatics Institute (RDI2) and will utilize supercomputing equipment and software provided by IBM (NYSE: IBM) in the project’s first phase.

Rutgers anticipates future expansion of the center will lead to the university having one of the world’s most powerful academic supercomputers. The institute is powered by an IBM Blue Gene/P supercomputer.

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“There is immense potential here because Rutgers and IBM have some of the best minds in high-performance computing,” said Michael J. Pazzani, vice president for research and economic development and professor of computer science at Rutgers.

“The ability to conduct data analysis on a large scale, leveraging the power of ‘big data,’ has become increasingly essential to research and development.”

The collaboration involving Rutgers and IBM scientists and engineers is expected to extend beyond computer science and engineering, to encompass fields such as cancer and genetic research, medical imaging and informatics, advanced manufacturing, environmental and climate research, and materials science.

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“The application of analytics to ‘big data’ has quickly emerged as the new foundry of the 21st century economy,” said Phil Guido, IBM general manager, North America.

In the picture above: In Rutgers computing center with IBM’s Blue Gene/P, (left) Michael J. Pazzani, vice president for research and economic development at Rutgers, and (right) Manish Parashar, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rutgers, is the university’s lead faculty member at the Rutgers Discovery Informatics Institute ( RDI2). The center is expected to improve New Jersey‘s economic competitiveness. (Source: Rutgers University).