Computer Grid Gives Head Start to Students, Cancer Patients
Profiles in Success: University of Louisville/Kentucky Dataseam Initiative
Louisville, KY — When the average K-12 student logs off of a classroom computer at the end of the day, chances are that system will be idle until the morning hours. But while students in Kentucky are slumbering, their Mac computers are doing critical work: They’re part of a computing grid that is enabling cutting-edge drug discovery. With financial support from the Commonwealth of Kentucky, an unprecedented partnership has been formed between the James Graham Brown Cancer Center at the University of Louisville (U of L) and the Kentucky Dataseam Initiative, which aims to drive economic development in the state. Thanks to this union, thousands of Mac computers in Kentucky’s K-12 environment will soon support the Center’s cancer research efforts. It’s a concept that dreams are made of.
The U of L/Dataseam collaboration began in 2004. At the time, Kentucky Dataseam CEO/Executive Director Brian Gupton and Dr. John Trent, Director of Molecular Modeling at the Brown Cancer Center, began to explore the possibility of harnessing the state’s unused CPU power for cancer research and drug discovery. Their first experiment with grid computing began with a small computer cluster in Gupton’s hometown — rural Princeton, Kentucky. The son of a coal miner who grew up in an opportunity-challenged corner of the state, Gupton had a strong desire to increase next-generation educational and employment prospects in Kentucky.
“Our school district had huge computational resources in their computer workstations,” recalls Gupton. “We saw that we could take advantage of the infrastructure within the K-12 environment to provide additional computing capacity to folks in the Higher Education arena. Then our partners would come out to talk to students, teachers, and the community about research, and encourage them to consider careers in science.”
Grid Crunches Data in the Background
As part of its charter to equip students to join the 21st-century workforce, Kentucky Dataseam has since placed over 2600 eMac and iMac computers in school districts throughout the state. By day the machines help students acquire the skills needed to propel them into careers of all types, such as science, accounting, graphic design, and photojournalism. In the background and at night, the Mac computers — powered by Xgrid (included in Mac OS X and Mac OS X server) and Xserves — quietly run the applications required to help U of L researchers discover new forms of cancer treatment.
Says Gupton, “School computers have a tremendous amount of untapped computing potential. They are unused nearly 80 percent of their lifetimes, on nights, weekends, and holidays. With Xgrid, we can use the machines 24/7 with no detriment to the user. When the students are in class, the jobs we’re running take up only a small portion of the CPUs. As soon as the students stop using the Macs, the jobs pick back up. And of course, we can fully leverage the CPUs when schools are not in session.”
”Our Macs are publicly funded assets, and anything we can do with them to address educational opportunities and public health concerns is a good thing,” Gupton adds. “We know that all kids won’t become scientists. But by putting the infrastructure into the district that will maximize their potential in their chosen careers, it’s a win/win for everyone.”
Next Page: Macs Reduce Drug Discovery from Years to Days
