CC* Regional Computing: ORCA: Oregon Regional Computing Accelerator

The Oregon Regional Computing Accelerator (Orca) project establishes a shared computational resource available for use by students, faculty, and researchers at universities and colleges across the Oregon region. This project enhances the computational capabilities and broadens the scope of computation-based educational opportunities in Oregon. Participating institutions in Orca include Oregon's research universities, small liberal arts colleges, and regional universities. The Orca computing cluster is hosted at Portland State University, and is accessible to users throughout the region by means of broadband fiber connectivity provided by Link Oregon. In addition to providing a high-performance cluster, the Orca project also facilitates trainings and research symposia on data- and computation-enable science. The project provides access to high-performance graphics processing unit (GPU)-accelerated computational resources, leveraging new and existing cyberinfrastructure investments at Portland State University. The cluster supports a diverse set of science drivers from among the participating institutions, with applications ranging from molecular systems biology to corpus linguistics to multiphase magma dynamics. Extramural usage and high-throughput computing are facilitated through the Open Science Grid and the Partnership to Advance Throughput Computing. The cluster is made easily accessible through a web-based Open OnDemand interface. Given the importance of GPU-based computing to a broad range of research areas, Orca strengthens Oregon's research and education in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, and computational science and engineering. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.