Volume 7 - June 9, 2026¶

Update on Plans for a New Cat

The university’s Research Data Center (RDC) is preparing to install its next HPC cluster in fall 2026. The new system will have 40 nodes of CPU compute, two 8-GPU nodes with H200 GPUs, and one 3TB High-memory node, and will incorporate InfiniBand networking for MPI capabilities.

This has been a long and challenging process, and we would not have been successful without the support of the Research Computing Governance Committee (RCGC) and our research community. We would also like to extend special thanks to the Office of Research & Partnerships (ORP), Senior VP of Research Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, CIO Elliott Cheu, and COO Richard Cate for their support and recognition of HPC's importance to the University's research and AI missions.

Buy-In Opportunity

We are continuing our practice of supporting faculty funds for adding compute nodes to the central purchase. Please contact us if you are interested in purchasing GPU or CPU computation capacity.

~ Jeremy Frumkin, Senior Director, UITS Research & Discovery Technologies

HPC Advances Brain Health Research

To help unlock the mysteries of how our brains age, the Precision Aging Network (PAN) is examining MRIs of more than 1,000 diverse participants across four American cities. The nationwide study, led by Dr. Carol Barnes, is looking at how factors like heart health, blood sugar, inflammation, and even genetics influence cognitive decline as we age.

Each participant undergoes a series of detailed brain scans—anatomical, functional, diffusion, and perfusion MRI, which provide a rich view of brain structure and activity. Then the university’s Brain and Body Imaging Center relies on the U of A Research Data Center’s high-performance computing (HPC) systems to process and analyze the millions of 3D data points, called voxels, per scan.

Read more about HPC support of PAN.

Picturing Research at Biosphere 2

Postdoctoral researcher Justin Bestily is studying the impacts of climate change on rainforest health by tracking water uptake in a cacao tree at Biosphere 2. Justin has also collaborated with Research Technologies’ Devin Bayly to translate raw data into visual and cinematic illustrations that explain the science to Biosphere 2 visitors and other lay audiences.

Read more about the different modeling Devin and Justin worked on and see the results.