Date: February 18, 2008
To: Dr. Robin Bowen, VPAA
From: The HiPACE Steering Committee:
Dr. Stephen Angel; Dr. David Bainum; Dr. Steven Black; Dr. Karen Camarda; Dr. Donna LaLonde; Dr. Bruce Mechtly; Dr. John Mullican; Dr. Gary Schmidt
Regarding: HiPACE Innovation Grant Progress Report

The Washburn University High Performance Academic Computing Environment (HiPACE) is a project funded by a Washburn University Innovation Grant, as approved by the Washburn University Board of Regents at their May 12, 2006 meeting. This report is submitted to satisfy the requirement that grant recipients report progress at the end of each academic year, as specified in the Agenda Item for that meeting.

HiPACE was proposed to enrich and enliven the science and technology education of all Washburn students, to support the scholarly activities of Washburn faculty, students, and staff, and to open outreach opportunities by making advanced technology training available to K-12 educators. The existence of HiPACE facilitates the development of technology-oriented courses, including general education courses, for example by providing a platform on which to run advanced visualization tools and virtual laboratories. The scholarly activities of the Washburn community are enhanced by the easy access to high-end computational resources, and by the ability to connect and collaborate with other computer centers. As an outreach tool, HiPACE provides the ability to offer workshops to K-12 educators on the use and potential of high-end computational technology. Key to our proposal was to develop an environment that would support the academic mission of the University in a way that is not currently possible.

In the construction of the HiPACE proposal, a timeline was developed to accomplish these goals. A copy of the full timeline is included as Appendix A. Some of the initial goals spelled out in this timeline have been realized:

Administrative Structure

A steering committee has been formed to establish the policies and procedures for HiPACE. The members of the steering committee are Stephen Angel, David Bainum, Steven Black, Karen Camarda, Donna LaLonde, Bruce Mechtly, John Mullican, and Gary Schmidt. Karen Camarda is serving as chair, and Gary Schmidt is serving as treasurer for the duration of the grant.

Two subcommittees have also been established. The Hardware Committee consists of David Bainum, Steven Black, and Gary Schmidt. The Software and Communications Committee consists of Bruce Mechtly and John Mullican.

The system administration of the HiPACE computers is being done by David Bainum, Steve Black, and Bruce Mechtly.

Bruce Mechtly is also serving as webmaster, with support from Donna LaLonde and John Mullican.

Hardware Acquisition

During the summer of 2006, numerous meetings were held by the HiPACE steering committee and others to establish the contents of the Request for Proposals to be issued for the HiPACE computing hardware. In August of that year, a RFP was issued for computer hardware consisting of three distinct server systems: a symmetric multiprocessing system (SMP), a cluster system, and a file server system. While reviewing the responses to this RFP, it was discovered that not all of the targeted vendors had received the RFP, and the decision was made to re-issue it in September. The second Request for Proposals was set to 27 vendors, of which nine submitted proposals.

Proposals were evaluated in accordance with how well vendors completely and effectively responded to the Request for Proposals, including compliance with providing the mandatory and optional requirements requested and the affordability of the overall system proposed. Ultimately, we recommended awarding the contract to Aspen Systems, Inc., and the Washburn Board of Regents approved this recommendation at their November 10, 2006 meeting.

After several delays by Aspen, the machines were finally delivered to campus on May 30, 2007, and were installed in Bennett 105A, their planned temporary location due to the ongoing renovations of Stoffer Science Hall.

Other Activities

Other work was being done to prepare for the acquisition of the HiPACE computers.

During the Spring of 2007, David Bainum configured the cluster system while it was still physically located at Aspen Systems, Inc. in Denver. David Bainum and Karen Camarda tested this configuration by porting and running benchmark and research programs on the cluster.

During the Spring 2007 semester, David Bainum offered a special topics course in the Computer and Information Sciences Department entitled “Cluster Computing.” As part of this course, students wrote programs that were also used to test the system.

Also during the Spring 2007 semester, Karen Camarda and Donna LaLonde offered an Honors Seminar, “Bit by Bit: Science Today.” Participants in the seminar attended one of the HiPACE presentations described below. Once the environment if fully functional, additional seminars will be offered utilizing the computers and resources, and introducing students to science and mathematics at Washburn University.

To begin to get NSD faculty members thinking about the possibilities of HiPACE, the talks given at two Spring 2007 NSD meetings were about HiPACE and high performance computing. At the February meeting, Bruce Mechtly and John Mullican gave a presentation that focused on how best to proceed with construction of the software repository. It emphasized that HiPACE members would have to “reach out” to the various departments on campus to solicit software product needs that could be satisfied through the software repository. At the March meeting, David Bainum gave a talk which covered the information he obtained at a week-long course on cluster computing at the University of Oklahoma. He gave an update on how universities were building or installing clusters for research and teaching in high-performance computing.

Although the machines arrived almost a year later than originally planned, we were excited to have them at the beginning of the summer, as most of us had been anticipating spending much of the summer learning how to use the computers, developing new course materials, and developing and running research programs. Unfortunately, before any of this development could get off the ground, restrictions were put in place by Information Systems and Services (ISS) that left us unable to work towards the goals of HiPACE as specified in the HiPACE grant.

These restrictions included ISS not connecting the machines to the campus network until early July, and ISS refusing to give the administrative password for the machines to HiPACE system administrators. Because of the unnecessary restrictions placed on HiPACE by ISS, faculty members on the HiPACE steering committee and others wasted countless hours fighting to be allowed to create the environment described in the HiPACE proposal and approved by the Washburn Board of Regents. Needless to say, these hours would have been much better spent on teaching or scholarly activities.

After several months of negotiations, with the help of VPAA Bowen and President Farley, we were given the administrative password for the HiPACE machines on October 22, 2007. This means that we can now control the software on these machines, and we can also control who has accounts on them. However, we can only access these machines through a Windows server that is controlled by ISS. We expect that this restriction will be removed during the Spring 2008 semester, when the machines are moved to the planned machine room in the newly renovated Stoffer Science Hall, as specified in the HiPACE proposal.

As we prepare to make the machines available and useful to Washburn faculty and students, a HiPACE web page is under development. This web page will ultimately give basic information about HiPACE and the HiPACE computer systems, a User's Guide to the HiPACE systems, access to a software repository, links to external computational resources, and examples of projects done with HiPACE. Significant progress has already been made on this web page, although it should be noted that the page cannot be fully functional until it can be served directly from the HiPACE computers themselves, which can only happen with the removal of the Windows server.

We have also begun testing several software packages on the HiPACE computers, to determine how to run them on these machines, and also to determine how to best make them available to HiPACE users. It is our hope that many packages can be made accessible through a web interface, to minimize the learning curve and make this system as useful as possible to as many people as possible.

To demonstrate the high-end computational capabilities of the HiPACE computers, Bruce Mechtly has been working on several projects that are very graphical and have the potential to generate student interest in the system. Among these are creating Mandelbrot Set images and movies (something that is relatively easy to do, and is almost expected of any high-performance computing facility), and visualization of the Ising Model in three dimensions (a simple model that shows self-organization of magnetic domains at low temperatures). Since this work was started over winter break, it was not convenient to solicit student involvement. Since that time, several students have been found to continue the work. To begin addressing the goal of campus involvement, Dr. Mechtly presented the first HiPACE Users' Group Seminar on this work in February, 2008.

Because of the many delays beyond our control, we have developed a new timeline for fulfilling the goals of this grant. This new timeline effectively extends the duration of this Innovation Grant by a year.

Revised Project Timeline

Spring 2008
  • Purchase UPS, and set up HiPACE computers in ST 205A.
  • Develop initial HiPACE project priorities.
  • Development of software repository.
  • Development of web interface for access to HiPACE.
  • Begin working on the governing of HiPACE, setting up and troubleshooting the operations of HiPACE and learning how to use HiPACE for teaching and research.
  • Identify faculty users for developing courses and research projects, as well as student users.
  • Begin HiPACE Users' Group seminars.
Summer 2008
  • Faculty and student users of HiPACE begin implementing project ideas in consultation with HiPACE experts.
  • Begin development of an evaluation component.
  • Begin testing innovative classes using HiPACE.
  • Doing research on the use of innovative classes versus standard classes (comparative evaluation).
  • Preparation for Fall and Spring “Go Times” for implementing innovative classes.
Fall 2008
  • Introduction of first courses to include virtual labs in class using HiPACE.
  • Offer general education Honors Seminar.
Spring 2009
  • Evaluate feedback from courses; test and reevaluate.
  • Partial implementation of new classes that are truly innovative, slightly innovative, and somewhat innovative.
  • Continue to evaluate projects and courses utilizing HiPACE.
  • Begin branching out to include more Departments and Schools and begin building an interdisciplinary network.
Summer 2009
  • Outreach to Kansas high schools. Tell them what we have learned about using HiPACE in the learning environment.
  • Teach high school teachers how to develop and use virtual labs in their classrooms/curricula.
Fall 2009
  • Continue to evaluate projects and courses utilizing HiPACE.
  • Implement more classes using HiPACE.
  • Begin grant writing for sustainability after funding period.
  • Begin grant writing to support high school and K-12 educators implement new curricula using technology.
  • By this time, HiPACE will have a high visibility on campus and within the community because of presentations at meetings, publications in journals, etc.
  • Continue to foster collaborations that will enhance visibility.
  • Begin giving seminars to members of the College to demonstrate how others (e.g., English, Nursing, etc.) can use HiPACE.
  • Help high school teachers implement technology into their curricula.
Spring 2010
  • Continue to evaluate projects and courses utilizing HiPACE.
  • Implement more classes using HiPACE.
  • High schools will begin teaching the new curricula.
  • Begin training K-12 teachers.

In conclusion, progress has been made towards achieving the goals set forth in the HiPACE proposal. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, we are not as far as we had planned. Starting in the Spring of 2008 we expect to have full access to the HiPACE computers, as originally proposed in the HiPACE Innovation Grant Proposal. In order to not squander the opportunity we have been given to create an academic computing environment on the Washburn University campus, we respectfully request an extra year beyond the normal innovation grant time to accomplish these goals.