Bowie State University
Small School Makes Big Statement with Xserve Cluster
Dr. Lowe’s conclusion that Bowie State needed a supercomputer for strategic reasons coincided with a proposal from Dr. Mark Matties, an assistant professor in the computer science department, to build an HPC cluster to allow his students to do more significant research than current resources allowed.
Dr. Mark Matties (second from left, in black shirt), who designed the Xseed cluster, was inspired by Virginia Tech’s Xserve-based System X.
“I had determined that we needed a supercomputer of our own and was just getting around to wondering how to make it happen when Mark’s proposal landed on my desk,” Dr. Lowe recalls. “We agreed to enlarge the scope of his original project dramatically, with the goal of building one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers at Bowie State.”
Dr. Matties went back to the drawing board. His task now was to design a system that could achieve Dr. Lowe’s goal of a spot on the TOP500 list and at the same time provide the ease of use that would allow the widest possible cross-section of the campus community to use the computer easily.
When Dr. Matties researched the world’s most powerful supercomputers, he learned that the Virginia Tech Apple Xserve cluster — at the time, one of the top 10 supercomputers in the world — had cost a fifth of what it cost to build the next least expensive computer in the top ten. It was clear that the Xserve platform could deliver both performance and cost-effectiveness.
“Apple’s legendary ease of use, along with the GUI management infrastructure and integrated suite of open source services in Mac OS X, was very attractive to us. We regard Mac OS X as the gold standard when it comes to usability.”
“Cost was of course important but it wasn’t our only consideration,” says Dr. Lowe. “Remember, we were looking for a system that would be used across the whole institution, not just one that would appeal to what we think of as the normal user community for an HPC cluster. So Apple’s legendary ease of use, along with the GUI management infrastructure and integrated suite of open source services in Mac OS X, was very attractive to us. We regard Mac OS X as the gold standard when it comes to usability.”
In addition to its 224 dual-processor Xserve G5 servers, the Xseed system includes two Xserve RAIDs providing 3TB of storage each. Bowie State chose this configuration based on price-performance, compatibility and interoperability considerations. Future development plans include implementing the Apple Xsan storage area network file system.
Ready for What Lies Ahead
As the first of five strategic initiatives set in motion by Dr. Lowe, the Xseed project offered dramatic evidence of the university’s determination to assume a leadership position as a center for advanced technology within the University System of Maryland and among the nation’s historically black colleges and universities.
Bowie State’s goal of encouraging collaborations and partnerships with outside entities has already been realized. Projects currently underway include the Chesapeake Bay Weather Modeling Project, Project Orange Animation Rendering, Synthetic Bone Materials Research and the Chesapeake Information Based Aeronautics Consortium. (See sidebar.)
Bowie State has also been successful in integrating Xseed into the fabric of the university on every level. Because the capacity of the Xserve cluster is so far in excess of demand, faculty members and students alike are actively encouraged to use the system in as many creative ways as possible.
One challenge will be to get professors from disciplines that have not traditionally used information technology to embrace the power that the Xserve cluster provides. To this end, President Lowe and Dr. Krichmar are currently co-teaching an interdisciplinary course at Bowie State that combines social science and information technology. Such an interdisciplinary approach will, they believe, help professors from many disciplines envision new kinds of learning opportunities to prepare their students for the professional demands of the modern workplace.
“I’m excited about how this machine has become integrated into the fabric of the university as a point of pride,” concludes Dr. Lowe. “As president of the university, I’m always concerned about maintaining good school spirit — making sure students and faculty members feel good about the things that make their school special. My sense is that the success of our Xseed project has already raised the profile of Bowie State University in a very positive way.”
Current Xseed Collaborations
Chesapeake Bay Weather Modeling Project: Faculty and staff from several schools and universities and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center are working to develop unified computational regional models of the atmosphere that can be expanded to a worldwide scale.
Project Orange: Bowie State is the render farm for a 3D animated movie short being co-produced by the Blender Foundation and the Netherlands Media Art Institute and published under an open public license. The movie will be rendered at film resolution and made available on DVD and film for use in theaters.
Synthetic Bone Materials Research: Dr. Otto Wilson, of Catholic University of America, is conducting research on the structural biology and remodeling process of synthetic bone materials. The goal of his research is to develop biomimetic-based procedures for the synthesis of nanocomposites to help improve hard tissue health at the whole tissue, cellular and sub cellular levels.
Chesapeake Information Based Aeronautics Consortium: Morgan State University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Bowie State University are collaborating to use real-time image processing and analysis of image data to detect obstructions on airport runways and taxiways.
Students taking advantage of their university’s computing resources at Bowie State’s Center for Learning and Technology.
