SciNet

The upgraded supercomputer, housed at U of T and available to researchers across Canada, will boast roughly three times the computing power of its predecessor

The �ؿ�ζSM will receive more than $52 million to upgrade one of the fastest supercomputers in Canada – a shared resource housed at U of T that allows researchers across the country to address key challenges in areas such as health care, drug discovery, sustainable transportation, AI and advanced manufacturing.

In a recent announcement, the Digital Research Alliance of Canada – a non-profit organization funded by the Canadian government – and the Government of Ontario committed to investing more than $95 million into advanced research computing (ARC) in Ontario at host sites at U of T and the University of Waterloo.

The more than $52 million earmarked for U of T’s SciNet – which includes matching funds from the province and Compute Ontario – will go toward replacing the Niagara supercomputer with a new computer network with roughly three times the raw computing power, more GPU capacity and storage boosted by an estimated 80 per cent.

“This computational infrastructure is critical for our community and for the Canadian research community at large – from the biomedical sciences to aerospace manufacturing,” said Timothy Chan, U of T’s associate vice-president and vice-provost, strategic initiatives and a professor in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

“It supports research in all fields, plus users benefit from the extensive education and training programming offered by SciNet.”

He added that the investment supports Canada’s desire to lead in advanced technologies, and that it comes on the heels of U of T University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton being awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for laying the foundations for today’s AI boom through his seminal work on deep learning.

“By expanding Canada’s supercomputing capabilities, we ensure that the country continues to excel in science and research while staying competitive on the global stage,” François-Phillipe Champagne, Canada’s minister of innovation, science and industry, said in a statement.

Chan, for his part, said the shared computing infrastructure, which will utilize a more sustainable, state-of-the-art cooling system, is a savvy use of public funding.

“These investments result in cost savings,” he said. “Ontario’s publicly funded ARC ecosystem costs users 80 per cent less than commercial cloud systems.”

He said students and researchers across Canada should be encouraged by the news.

“It's a unique resource,” he said. “If my students are doing computational research, they can use the cloud, which is expensive. Or they can build their own computer to do it, but they’re not going to have the same kind of power, scale or expert support as something like SciNet.

“It plays a big role in being able to speed up research, speed up discovery with whatever they're working on and access more computational memory, more storage and more computational power.”

For example, Chan says students can run an algorithm at much faster speeds and test multiple algorithms at the same time – something that’s not always possible on local machines.

“Equipping the next generation with job-ready skills in high-performance computing, machine learning and AI is critical to industries including manufacturing, automotive, finance, and the life sciences. When we invest in advanced research computing, we help our students get skilled jobs and attract highly skilled workers to Ontario.”

AMD’s supercomputing partnerships with U of T, other universities to take centre stage at CES

rahul.kalvapalle — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 21:32:05 +0000

AMD’s supercomputing partnerships with U of T, other universities to take centre stage at CES

rahul.kalvapalle Fri, 01/08/2021 - 16:32

Cutline

(photo by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Global Lens

Industry Partnerships

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

SciNet

Hospital for Sick Children

Occupational Therapy

United States

University Health Network

The �ؿ�ζSM’s partnership with processor giant AMD, which underpins supercomputing applications for COVID-19 and other health research, is set to be highlighted on one of the world’s biggest technology stages: the annual CES conference.

The four-day conference, held virtually this year because of the pandemic, will kick off next week and includes a keynote from Lisa Su, AMD’s chief executive, on the future of high-performance computing. That includes the company’s partnerships with educational institutions like U of T, which last fall launched a supercomputing platform with AMD focused on health research.

Alex Mihailidis, U of T’s associate vice-president, international partnerships, said the fact that AMD will highlight its partnership with U of T and other universities at CES is testament to U of T’s prowess in the growing area of supercomputing applications in health care as well as its leadership in strategic partnerships.

“Companies like AMD and others are coming to U of T because they know about the capabilities we have as a university and that our faculty members have as researchers, and that we are producing some of the best research globally whether it’s around COVID-19, pandemic-based research or other work that’s happening in the health space,” said Mihailidis, a professor in the department of occupational science and occupational therapy in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

“The fact that AMD wants to feature the partnership with U of T really solidifies what we’ve already known to this point, which is that U of T is a leading global institution when it comes to this area of work.”

U of T’s recent partnership with AMD allows researchers to harness the company’s processing power to foster advancements in vaccine development, drug discovery, mathematical modelling and other areas pertinent to COVID-19 and other health-related research. Dubbed SciNet4Health, the program will operate out of the facilities of SciNet, the U of T-based supercomputing consortium.

Both Mihailidis and Daniel Gruner, chief technology officer at SciNet, will make appearances in Su’s keynote presentation at CES.

SciNet4Health will draw on the experience of HPC4Health, a high-performance computing network established by UHN and the Hospital for Sick Children. The organizations plan to work together to meet the needs of the health sciences research community in and around Toronto.

It is being powered by one petaflop of dedicated processing power, which was provided by AMD and is capable of one quadrillion calculations per second. The company’s donated equipment is scheduled to arrive at U of T in the coming weeks, Mihailidis said.

Mihailidis said the new equipment will make it possible to harness patient data in a way that wasn’t previously possible because of privacy and security considerations.

“This will give U of T researchers working in the area of COVID-19 and other areas of health the ability to conduct research that will allow them to use patient data itself, which is really important – especially for those who are trying to develop various types of models and different approaches related to personalized health,” he said.

“Where COVID-19 is concerned, these resources will aid research trying to model the disease itself and model how the pandemic has impacted various types of demographics in Canada.”

The AMD donation was made through the company’s COVID-19 HPC fund, established to provide leading research institutions with high-performance computing resources to aid research on COVID-19 and other health-care areas.

Some of the other leading research institutions selected to receive support through the fund include MIT, Stanford University, Cambridge University and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

“We’re being featured alongside many other top-tier institutions from around the world,” Mihailidis said.

“The hope is that this partnership, cemented through this CES keynote, will help us develop more partnerships with other leading institutions as well.”

Learn more about industry partnerships at U of T

U of T supercomputing centre, IP education initiatives receive boost from Ontario budget

rahul.kalvapalle — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 17:12:02 +0000

U of T supercomputing centre, IP education initiatives receive boost from Ontario budget

rahul.kalvapalle Fri, 11/06/2020 - 12:12

Cutline

A $3.5-million investment by the province into advanced research computing, a key strategic priority of Compute Ontario, is expected to benefit U of T's SciNet, home to Canada's most powerful research computer (Vince Talotta/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Research & Innovation

Ted Sargent

The �ؿ�ζSM’s SciNet supercomputing consortium, which provides researchers across Ontario with high-powered computational resources, will receive a further boost thanks to funding in the province’s latest budget.

The 2020 budget, released Thursday, calls for a $3.5-million investment into advanced research computing, a key strategic priority of Compute Ontario, a non-profit organization devoted to supporting, streamlining and growing advanced computing projects in in the province.

That includes support for SciNet, which is home to Canada's most powerful research computer – a machine that accelerates cutting-edge research in fields ranging from medical research and climate science to astrophysics and aerospace engineering.

“Today’s provincial budget investment in the foundations of research and commercialization recognizes the essential role of post-secondary institutions in making Ontario a magnet for highly qualified, hard-working talent who drive innovation and growth,” said University Professor Ted Sargent, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

The investments come as institutions such as U of T lead the way on research that will help end the pandemic and bring renewed prosperity and growth to Ontario. In the case of advanced research computing, that includes continued capacity for essential training of highly qualified personnel who use computational methods to address pressing questions facing society.

Sargent said investments in SciNet benefit a wide variety of sectors, noting the consortium’s new partnership with processor giant AMD to launch SciNet4Health, a supercomputing platform dedicated to powering health research, including on COVID-19.

“SciNet has been an important catalyst for research discovery across fields from biomedical sciences to climate science and aerospace engineering,” Sargent said. “SciNet’s most recent partnership with AMD has created a supercomputing program that will advance health-care research and lead to advancements in drug discovery, vaccine development and genomics research.

“Continued investment in computing power and collaboration among institutions is important to strengthen Ontario’s knowledge foundations for years to come.”

The budget also sets aside $1.5 million for the implementation of recommendations drawn up by the Expert Panel on Intellectual Property, which counts Shiri Breznitz, associate professor in the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, among its members.

That includes funding support that prioritizes IP creation, protection and commercialization, and includes development of intellectual property curriculums such as U of T’s recently launched IP Education Course.

Offered by U of T Entrepreneurship, the free online course is designed to equip students, faculty, staff and alumni with a solid foundation in intellectual property and its applications. It was created by leading intellectual property experts and draws on resources from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and the Centre for International Governance and Innovation, among others. The course aims to help participants recognize when they create something of value and the steps required to protect it – all crucial skills in today’s knowledge economy.

The course is the latest addition to programs available to U of T innovators and entrepreneurs that have contributed to the creation of over 500 startups in the last decade.

U of T and AMD launch supercomputing program dedicated to big-data health research

rahul.kalvapalle — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 16:07:44 +0000

U of T and AMD launch supercomputing program dedicated to big-data health research

rahul.kalvapalle Mon, 09/14/2020 - 12:07

Cutline

(photo courtesy of SciNet)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Global Lens

Coronavirus

Industry Partnerships

Research & Innovation

University Health Network

The �ؿ�ζSM is teaming up with processor giant AMD to launch a supercomputing platform that will power the university’s health research – including on global threats such as COVID-19.

The initiative, dubbed SciNet4Health, will allow researchers and clinician scientists at U of T and its partner hospitals to access and analyze massive databases of patient health information – in a secure way that protects patients’ privacy – using technologies such as machine learning.

SciNet4Health is made possible by AMD’s donation of one petaflop of dedicated processing power, capable of a quadrillion calculations per second. It promises to lead to advancements in vaccine development, drug discovery, genomics research and mathematical modelling.

“The new resources that we are receiving from AMD are going to allow us to set up the computing infrastructure that our health researchers need, especially right now during the time of COVID-19 when many of our faculty are working towards various solutions and positive outcomes for the pandemic,” said Alex Mihailidis, U of T’s associate vice-president, international partnerships.

“Until today, U of T did not have a dedicated computing infrastructure for health researchers that can support patient data, so this is going to have a significant impact on our research.”

SciNet4Health will operate out of the facilities of SciNet, the U of T-based supercomputing consortium and home to Canada’s most powerful research supercomputer: Niagara. The program will allow SciNet, which has enabled advancements fields ranging from astrophysics to climate science, bring its capacity for cutting-edge data science to health research.

Daniel Gruner, chief technology officer at SciNet, said high-performance computing allows for complex calculations that regular computers simply can’t manage.

“If you’re thinking of using AI and machine learning to try and make sense of huge and diverse data, you need these big computers because it can’t be done on a small machine – it requires a lot of math, a lot of computation, so you need computers that are specially geared towards that,” he said.

“The resources we’re receiving from AMD happen to be very heavy on GPUs [graphic processing units] that can run deep learning calculations a lot faster than a regular CPU can.”

The donation by AMD, based in Santa Clara, Calif., consists of 20 “compute nodes” – individual computers that comprise a high-performance computing cluster – each with eight GPUs.

“That’s a whole lot of power,” Gruner said.

It’s also power that will be completely in-house. Until now, U of T health researchers in need of supercomputing worked through partner initiatives such as HPC4Health, a high-performance computing network established by UHN and the Hospital for Sick Children. SciNet4Health drew on HPC4Health’s experience using patient data to establish its procedures and protocols. The two organizations plan to work together to meet the needs of the health sciences research community in and around Toronto.

“This is helping catalyse our ability to do more private health information research inside the university,” said Gruner.

For his part, Mihailidis says the machine learning and deep learning capabilities that will be provided by SciNet4Health will enable researchers to work with patient data to a degree that wasn’t previously possible due to security and privacy considerations. A professor in the department of occupational science and occupational therapy in the Faculty of Medicine, Mihailidis cited his research on aging and geriatrics as just one example of the kind of work that stands to benefit.

“We’ve been doing a lot of work around collecting data about what older people are doing in their homes and communities, and using machine learning, deep learning and other predictive analytics to determine changes in their health,” he said.

“The problem we’ve had to date is that because we haven’t had secure servers that have allowed us to securely use patient data, we’ve had to scrub the data to the point where the personal attributes are being removed – and because of that, our predictive models on their health aren’t as accurate as they could be if we were able to include the patient health data itself.

“Having this type of resource at the university will allow us to take that type of research to the next level.”

U of T is among a small group of universities to receive the supercomputing systems from AMD. Others include Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles.

“AMD is proud to be working with leading global research institutions to bring the power of high-performance computing technology to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic,” said Mark Papermaster, AMD’s executive vice-president and chief technology officer.

“These donations of AMD EPYC and Radeon Instinct processors will help researchers not only deepen their understanding of COVID-19, but also help improve our ability to respond to future potential threats to global health.”