Introduction Overview Digital Technology Center Supercomputing Institute Programs Supercomputers Research Laboratories Graduate Programs Partnerships Research Scholarship Program Undergraduate Internship Program Researchers and Administration Fellows of the Institute National Advisory Board Administrative Staff Technical Support Staff Committee and Panel Members External Support Conferences Sponsored Symposia Ongoing and Recently Completed Research Projects from January 1, 2002 to March 15, 2003 University of Minnesota–Duluth Campus College of Science and Engineering Department of Chemistry Department of Computer Science Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of Physics School of Medicine #Department of biochemistry and moleculsar biology|region Department of Pharmacology University of Minnesota–Hormel Institute Hormel Institute University of Minnesota–Twin Cities Campus College of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Sciences Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics Department of Animal Science Department of Plant Pathology Department of Soil, Water, and Climate College of Biological Sciences Biotechnology Institute Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior Department of Plant Biology College of Biological Sciences and Medical School Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development College of Liberal Arts Department of Economics College of Natural Resources Department of Wood and Paper Science College of Pharmacy College of Pharmacy Department of Medicinal Chemistry Department of Pharmaceutics College of Veterinary Medicine Department of Veterinary Pathobiology Curtis L. Carlson School of Management Department of Finance Department of Operations and Management Science Institute of Technology Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics Department of Astronomy Department of Biomedical Engineering Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Department of Chemistry and Chemical Physics Program Department of Civil Engineering St. Anthony Falls Laboratory Department of Computer Science and Engineering Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of Geology and Geophysics School of Mathematics Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Physics Theoretical Physics Institute Medical School Cancer Center Dpt of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology Department of Medicine Dpt of Microbiology|region Department of Neuroscience Department of Neurosurgery Department of Orthopaedic Surgery Department of Otolaryngology Department of Pediatrics Department of Pharmacology Department of Physiology Department of Psychiatry Department of Radiology Department of Surgery Department of Therapeutic Radiology–Radiation Oncology Stem Cell Institute School of Dentistry Department of Diagnostic/Surgical Sciences Department of Oral Sciences Department of Preventative Sciences School of Public Health Div Of Envirornmental Occupational Health| Division of Epidemiology Mayo Medical School Department of Pharmacology Metropolitan State University Department of Information and Computer Sciences Minnesota State University–Mankato Department of Management St. Cloud State University Department of Chemistry Department of Computer Science University of St. Thomas Department of Engineering Index and Bibliography Index of Principal Investigators Research Reports Bibliography Overview Founded in 1984, the Supercomputing Institute is an interdisciplinary research program spanning all colleges of the University of Minnesota. The Supercomputing Institute provides supercomputing resources and user support to faculty and students and is a linchpin program in the University’s broad- based digital technology effort. The mission of the Supercomputing Institute is supercomputing research. This includes all aspects of high-performance computing and scientific modeling and simulation, as well as graphics, visualization, high-performance network communications, informatics, and data mining. Supercomputing research is defined broadly to include a variety of research activities from many disciplines. This research involves the use of high-performance computing environments to address problems in science and engineering that could not otherwise be attempted. Such efforts often result in domain-specific algorithms and codes that exploit the available computing environments as well as visualization techniques to enhance insight, make displays more informative, and add multimedia value to communications and work environments. In many cases, these research activities may involve research aimed at the design or evaluation of high-performance computing hardware, operating systems, networking, and general-purpose algorithms and software. The Supercomputing Institute’s resources are available to researchers at the University of Minnesota and other post-secondary educational institutions in the State of Minnesota. In addition, the Supercomputing Institute organizes and hosts symposia, workshops, and seminars, and coordinates other educational and collaborative activities to promote supercomputing research, increase university– industry collaboration, and promote technology transfer. Digital Technology Center The Supercomputing Institute plays a central role in the University of Minnesota’s digital technology initiative. This initiative includes technologies based on computers, electronics, telecommunications, digital design, computational biology, systems recognition and verification, graphics and visualization, databases and data mining, networks, storage, artificial intelligence, robotics and vision, signal processing and wireless technology, and electronic commerce. Key to this initiative is the renovation of Walter Library on the University’s East Bank Campus into a Digital Technology Center. This $63.4 million renovation kept the library’s historic 1920s decor intact while revamping the interior to include state-of-the-art technology. The Supercomputing Institute joined the Digital Technology Center in 2001 and moved to the home of the Digital Technology Center in Walter Library in March 2002, where it is located on the fifth floor and part of the fourth floor and basement. Supercomputers In 1981, the University of Minnesota was the first American university to acquire a supercomputer (a Cray-1B). The Supercomputing Institute was created in 1984 to provide leading-edge, high- performance computing resources to the University of Minnesota’s research community. From its inception through 1999, the supercomputing resources offered to the University of Minnesota research community have included a Cray- 2, an ETA 10, a Cray X-MP, an IBM 3090, a Cray M90, a Cray T3D, a Cray C90, a Cray T3E-900, an IBM SP based on Silvernodes, and an IBM SP based on WinterHawk and NightHawk nodes. The Supercomputing Institute has continued the strong tradition of providing University of Minnesota researchers with leading-edge, high-performance computing technologies and diversified programs that complement these technologies. In addition, the Institute has developed a strong program of user support, including tutorials and applications support across the physical, biological, mathematical, and computer sciences, engineering, and other disciplines that use high-performance computing, informatics, and data mining. In April 2000, the WinterHawk nodes were upgraded to WinterHawk+ technology. The Institute’s IBM SP supercomputer currently consists of a 370-processor supercomputer with 663 GB of memory. The nodes available for computation are: • 74 4-processor WinterHawk+ nodes with 375 MHz Power3 processors; 16 nodes have 8 GB of memory each; the remaining nodes each have 4 GB of memory. • 12 4-processor NightHawk nodes, each with 222 MHz Power3 processors and 16 GB of memory. Four of the WinterHawk+ nodes are available for interactive use, and the remaining WinterHawk+ nodes and all NightHawk nodes are for computation through the queuing system. There are also four WinterHawk+ nodes used as file servers. In addition, the Institute has a 16-processor Silvernode IBM SP with 12 GB of memory. The Silvernode SP utilizes the 332 MHz PowerPC 604e processor and has 4 TB of disk space. The IBM supercomputer resources are available in coordination with the IBM Shared University Research (SUR) partnership. In March 2002, the Supercomputing Institute purchased an IBM pSeries 690 (Regatta). This system was upgraded in August 2002 to two Regattas. The system consists of two compute nodes with 1.3 GHz Power4 processors, file servers, and an interactive node. One of the compute nodes has 32 processors sharing 64 GB of memory, while the second node has 24 processors sharing 24 GB of memory. The interactive node is a WinterHawk+ node. Four 4-processor NightHawk nodes are used as file servers for 7 TB of disk. The Institute’s LINUX Cluster consists of 82 2-processor Netfinity nodes from IBM. Of these 82 nodes, 76 are available for computation, five are file servers, and one node is for interactive use. Seventeen of these nodes have two 733 MHx Intel Pentium III processors sharing 1 GB of memory. The remaining nodes have two 1.26 GHz Pentium III processors sharing 3.25 GB of memory. The nodes are connected together using Fast Ethernet and Myrinet. A cluster file system provides 2.5 TB of disk that can be used on all nodes. The IBM systems will be upgraded in July 2003 and further upgraded in Fall 2003. In May 2001, the Supercomputing Institute installed