Dr. Dr. Alvarado-Serrano received an 1804 grant to create a high performance computer cluster at Ohio University.
Dr. Diego F. Alvarado-Serrano, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, received a grant of $77,612 from the 1804 Fund of the Ohio University Foundation for the development of an entry-level high performance computing (HPC) cluster at Ohio University.
It is currently scheduled to be up and running for undergraduate use by fall of 2021.
Alvarado-Serrano studies how species respond to environmental change by analyzing the imprint that events such as habitat fragmentation leave on species’ genetic material. Some of his work, for instance, has focused on understanding the impact that Pleistocene glaciations had on species, and how that information can be used to forecast their likelihood of extinction under ongoing climatic changes. As these analyses require large amounts of data and sophisticated analyses, he saw an opportunity to develop a supercomputer cluster to further research in several fields.
The planned HPC cluster will be able to analyze various types of data and will open the door to many more questions and opportunities for research.
The plan for this cluster is to be composed of four powerful computing nodes, each corresponding to a single-socket with 64 cores and access to at least 1.6TB of storage.
Alvarado-Serrano is in the process of creating a class called “Personal Genomics,” which will focus on the processing and study of genomic data and will use the HPC cluster to give undergraduate students hands-on opportunities in research.
A workshop for faculty and graduate students will be offered in Fall 2021 with the goal of providing an overview on how HPC clusters operate and to get individuals comfortable with the technology.
Learn more about Ohio University’s 1804 Fund.
Photograph of the space allocated for the proposed HPC cluster within OU’s Data Center—a dedicated facility for hosting computer servers.
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