Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
News
U Illinois Urbana-Champaign Named CUDA Center of Excellence
7/1/2008
|
|
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has been named Nvidia's first CUDA "Center of Excellence" for adopting parallel computing strategies and applying them to research. The university also said it has received $500,000 from Nvidia to support ongoing research and to help develop parallel computing facilities.
CUDA is a suite of tools, including a C-compiler and SDK, for developing multi-core and parallel processing applications on Nvidia's GPUs. Forty-one universities are currently using CUDA for multi-core and parallel processing programming, which is about double the number of universities that were using it seven months ago.
UIUC is using parallel processing for research in computational biophysics and has "successfully accelerated NAMD/VMD--a popular parallel molecular dynamics application that analyzes large biomolecular systems," according to the university.
"We're very excited to partner with Nvidia and anticipate that together we will achieve breakthroughs in biomedicine, leading to a better understanding of disease and more effective treatments," said Klaus Schulten, Swanlund Professor of Physics and director of the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group at UIUC, in a statement released Monday. "This generous gift will be a great stimulus for Illinois' team of outstanding young programmers. It will help to extend their ranks and equip them with the necessary tools to advance computing in decades to come."
Universities that wish to become CUDA Centers of Excellence include CUDA technologies in their research efforts and teach at least one course in CUDA.
Around this time last year, UIUC partnered with Nvidia to offer a course in parallel computing such tools as Nvidia's CUDA C-programming environment taught by both the chair of the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the chief scientist at Nvidia, David Kirk.
Those institutions that are accepted as CUDA Centers of Excellence receive funding, equipment donations, and support for setting up a GPU computing cluster. In addition to the $500,000 donation it received this week, UIUC has received about $800,000 in equipment in the form of a 16-node CUDA technology cluster administered by UIUC's National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
Further information on CUDA can be found here.
About the author: Dave Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's educational technology online publications and electronic newsletters. He can be reached at dnagel@1105media.com.
Have any additional questions? Want to share your story? Want to pass along a news tip? Contact Dave Nagel, executive editor, at dnagel@1105media.com.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
Recommended Reading
- Talisma Launches New Version of CRM with Built-in Application Management
Talisma Corp. announced version 8.0 of its constituent relationship management (CRM) application for higher education. The new release includes application management, a revamped user interface, two-way text messaging, personalized Web portals, and an ADA-compliant Web client, among other enhancements.
- Bringing Composers into Classrooms Through Skype
Two Pennsylvania teaching colleagues with an interest in music and technology are bringing remote experts into classrooms at almost no cost, using Skype's free videoconferencing technology.
- Columbia U Going Live on iTunes U
Columbia University has been beta testing its content through iTunes U, the Apple desktop media player for education-related podcasting. The New York-based university expects to go live with its release at the start of the fall semester.
- Let the Games Begin! Google vs. Microsoft
Pursuing a strategy as a consumer of services and choice, Drexel University has partnered with both Google and Microsoft to provide students with massive e-mail mailboxes, gigabytes of file storage with collaboration tools, Web-based calendars, personal blogs, and more.
- Ferrum College Enrolls Juniper Networks To Extend 10 Gigabit Ethernet
Ferrum College in southwestern Virginia has chosen to replace its campus-wide legacy Cisco network infrastructure with Juniper Network switching, network access control (NAC), and firewall/virtual private network (VPN) solutions. The college chose the new equipment after deciding to extend 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) throughput across the network in support of advanced voice over IP (VoIP) by fall 2009.
- Tiffin U's New Online College to Use Pearson's eCollege for Course Management
Beginning this fall, students in Tiffin University's newest online program, Ivy Bridge College, will use eCollege, a course management system from Pearson, for all of their online courses. The 2,350-student Tiffin U is located in Tiffin, OH and offers both on-campus and online classes. Since 2005, those online courses have been managed through Jenzabar Internet Campus Solution.
Related Articles
- California Community Colleges Partner with Waterfall Mobile on Statewide Emergency Notification Coverage
- King's College and ASU Add e2Campus for Improved Emergency Notifications
- Saint Joseph Builds Out Wireless Network in Multi-year Upgrade
- Vista Ramp Up Is Happening Now, Study Says
