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.