USD gains federal grant for new supercomputer

The University of South Dakota recently announced that it has received two grants to replace the school’s current supercomputer, allowing the university to purchase a new supercomputing systems for research.

The National Science Foundation recently stated that these supercomputing systems are needed (like DNA sequencers and electronic microscopes) at universities that conduct research.

The supercomputer at USD was an award from the National Institutes of Health in 2006. This system has allowed over 100 faculty and students to send their research to scientific courses and publications.

“Supercomputers allow scientists to do simulations of events that are expensive or infeasible to produce in the laboratory,” Doug Jennewein, USD research computing manager, said. “They also allow scientists to run computations that are too complicated or time consuming to run on a laptop or laboratory PC.”

One of the grants is a major research instrumentation grant worth $504,911 from the National Science Foundation. The South Dakota Board of Regents awarded USD another grant worth $200,000, also for the supercomputing system.

“The new supercomputer will improve USD’s research environment and competitiveness,” Jennewein said. “This means improved chances for research grants which can translate into more student research assistants.”

The university has said that it will name the new supercomputer after USD alumnus and Nobel Laureate EO Lawrence.