Rice part of consortium to build computing grid across Texas

Rice part of consortium to build computing grid across Texas
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High performance
computing (HPC) centers and researchers at the leading research
universities in Texas announced the formation of a consortium
to meet the challenges of providing the next generation
of computing and network infrastructure to researchers,
students and industry.

The High Performance
Computing Across Texas (HiPCAT) consortium was founded by
HPC staff and researchers at Rice University, Texas A&M
University, Texas Tech University, the University of Houston
and The University of Texas at Austin as an informal discussion
group for sharing expertise and experience.

HiPCAT has grown
to include more researchers at each institution and to encompass
additional technology areas, in particular grid computing.
HiPCAT’s first major project, the Texas Internet Grid
for Research & Education (TIGRE) began in July 2001,
leading HiPCAT to become a formal multi-institution consortium
on October 23, 2002.

The unification
of HiPCAT institutions strongly positions the group to address
the unique opportunities presented by grid technologies
for creating a powerful research and education grid.

All faculty,
staff, and students at HiPCAT member institutions may participate
in HiPCAT activities. New members will be invited to join
HiPCAT starting in early 2003, with plans to eventually
include all of the research institutions in Texas that utilize
advanced computing resources.

HiPCAT institutions
will collaborate on proposals for research funding as well
as in the deployment and support of infrastructure. “HiPCAT
will be able to leverage Rice’s long-standing leadership
in high performance computing and Grid enabling tools through
Ken Kennedy’s NSF-funded GrADS project. The TIGRE test
bed will be an ideal collaborative environment across the
state of Texas for Grid research. The potential for collaboration
between researchers in Texas universities will greatly benefit
the state,” said Jan Odegard, executive director of
the Computer and Information Technology Institute at Rice.

For more information
about HiPCAT, visit <www.hipcat.net>
or contact Jay Boisseau at <boisseau@hipcat.net>.