OSC to Provide HPC, Storage for ICICLE NSF AI Institute

July 30, 2021 — The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) will serve as a core collaborator in the new NSF AI Institute for Intelligent Cyberinfrastructure with Computational Learning in the Environment (ICICLE), one of 11 such Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Institutes created as part of a $200 million grant announced today by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The AI Research Institutes will collectively enhance the United States’ ability to capitalize on the full potential of AI to strengthen the economy, advance job growth and benefit society at large.

Led by The Ohio State University, ICICLE will receive a total of $20 million over five years to build the next generation of cyberinfrastructure and render AI more accessible to everyone. In addition to Ohio State and OSC, Case Western Reserve University also represents Ohio among the 13 core institutions involved in the project.

Three major supercomputer centers will supply ICICLE with high performance computing (HPC) and large-scale data storage, key technologies that underly artificial intelligence. Joining OSC are the University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) and the University of California-San Diego’s San Diego Supercomputer Center (SCSD).

“As a statewide resource, OSC aggregates capabilities to extend supercomputing access to institutions that would not otherwise have it,” said OSC Executive Director Dave Hudak. “Having worked for 30 years to democratize supercomputing, OSC is a perfect fit for ICICLE’s effort to do the same for AI, now the most significant driver of technological innovation.”

The institute’s central aim is to make AI easy to use for scientists and non-experts alike, centering on an “AI-as-a-service” concept employing natural language conversational controls and visualization-powered user interfaces accessible on a wide range of platforms and devices. The significant technological requirements of such a service will be assessed by scientists from multidisciplinary backgrounds as they design a national cyberinfrastructure around three principal application areas: smart foodsheds, precision agriculture and animal ecology.

Ohio State’s Dhabaleswar K. (DK) Panda, professor of computer science and engineering, is the principal investigator, leading a core team of 46 academic researchers and staff scientists.

At the same time, the institute will undertake the creation of an integrated educational and professional development program designed to significantly increase the number and diversity of individuals with AI and cyberinfrastructure skills to meet tomorrow’s workforce needs in a variety of domains.

“OSC is especially proud to support a project that so squarely centers diversity and inclusion in its sights,” said Karen Tomko, OSC director of research software applications and lead institute collaborator. “Ensuring adequate representation in emerging technologies is critically important to equitably distributing the benefits of these advancements.”

The need for increased access to training and easy-to-use interfaces for AI are not new to OSC, according to Tomko.

“Over the last several years, we’ve seen a growing workload in AI training on our systems. Our goal through ICICLE is to make AI training and model usage easy to port across different computing systems to meet this increasing demand, not only here at OSC but across the country.”

The full list of core collaborating institutions includes:

The Ohio State University
Ohio Supercomputer Center
Case Western Reserve University
Iowa State University
Indiana University
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Texas-Austin/Texas Advanced Supercomputing Center (TACC)
University of Utah
University of Delaware
UC San Diego/San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC)
UC Davis
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
IC-FOODS

The institute includes more than 40 total partners, such as Department of Energy research labs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, non-profit organizations, university-based research centers and private industry.

About OSC:

The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) addresses the rising computational demands of academic and industrial research communities by providing a robust shared infrastructure and proven expertise in advanced modeling, simulation and analysis. OSC empowers scientists with the services essential to making extraordinary discoveries and innovations, partners with businesses and industry to leverage computational science as a competitive force in the global knowledge economy and leads efforts to equip the workforce with the key technology skills required for 21st century jobs.

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Source: OSC