Computer pact Extra leverage in securing grants and a broader student view into the world of computing are among the benefits expected when the University of Hawaii begins running the military supercomputer on Maui later this year.
offers UH
many perks
The $181 million deal will
help with grants, university
visibility and student experience
By Tim Ruel
Star-Bulletin
UH announced yesterday it has won a four-year contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory to operate the supercomputer center, edging out an incumbent management team led by the University of New Mexico.
The contract has a potential value of $181 million, and could be extended to 10 years. The money will largely cover the administrative expenses of UH and its team, which includes military contractors Science Applications International Corp., Textron Inc. and Boeing Co.'s Rocketdyne unit.
The benefits of the pact extend beyond its dollar value, however. The facility -- to be renamed the Maui Supercomputing Center -- is among the top 20 most powerful supercomputer sites in the world. It is also the second most powerful supercomputer owned by the U.S. Department of Defense, providing high-tech training, battlefield simulation and support for other military facilities in Hawaii.
"It certainly gives positive visibility to UH to be the operator," said Duane Stevens, a professor of meteorology at UH. The Meteorology Department uses the supercomputer to power models for its weather forecasting program and uses the center more than any other department at the university.
Other benefits of the contract are more concrete. For example, UH's top computer science students could learn the inner workings of supercomputing, readying them for highly sought after and lucrative jobs, said Stephen Itoga, chairman of the Department of Information & Computer Sciences at UH.
Hawaii students would normally have to go to the West Coast to get that kind of training, said Itoga, who was not directly involved in the UH bid, but served on an advisory board to the team.
Entry-level computer education at UH is already provided by working on 100 Sony PlayStation video game sets donated by Square USA Inc., a local graphics software company that does business with Sony.
Last year, computer maker IBM also donated a smaller $2 million supercomputer, dubbed Blue Hawaii, to teach UH students. "The training wheels if you will," said Itoga. "When our students then go out into the industry and they look at problems, they have a good repertoire of computing tools that they know how to use and apply to the various kinds of problems that they see."
If students work solely with personal computers, they only know how to solve problems for personal computers, Itoga said. "If the only thing that you have a is a hammer, then everything is going to look like a nail to you."
UH has already worked with the Maui supercomputer. But because of the distance between Hawaii and officials in New Mexico, meetings with the center's officials were infrequent, making it harder to plan projects. "The relationship was a little more arduous and difficult," Itoga said, noting New Mexico officials were helpful when they were available.
UH approached the contract by learning about the requirements, assembling a solid team and meeting the needs of the Air Force, said David Lassner, the university's director of information technology and principal investigator for the UH team.
In July, UH will begin moving into the supercomputer, a key tenant at the 330-acre Maui Research and Technology Park near Kihei. UH officially begins operating under the contract in October. A University of New Mexico spokesman could not be reached for comment.
University of Hawaii
