TABLE OF CONTENTS
Project Summary ..........................................................................................................................................2
Project Description .......................................................................................................................................3
Plan............................................................................................................................................................4
Purpose .....................................................................................................................................................4
Goals...................................................................................................................................................... 4-5
Benefits......................................................................................................................................................5
Scope ..................................................................................................................................................... 5-8
Rack description ......................................................................................................................................9
References ...............................................................................................................................................10
Quote .......................................................................................................................................................11
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Texas Educational Grid Project
Project Summary
This proposal will be a bridge for the future students in Engineering Technology (ET)
at various educational institutions and training facilities. The students will interact with
the state of the art equipment that is provided from Texas Educational Grid Project and
ConocoPhillips, Inc. to be used in the laboratory. This equipment will be useful in
educational and research, for undergraduate and graduate students, purposes dealing with
Grid Clustering and high performance computing. The Project will include students and
educators interested in learning more or supporting educational opportunities in the area
of grid computing. Design, implementation, security, support, and availability of their
computer cluster for the benefit of their students and team members. The value of this
effort is to provide each educational environment a broader learning opportunity. The
experience with the equipment will provide educators and students “virtual”
supercomputer environment and numerous cluster administration and software
development opportunities.
This project will produce a solid training for undergraduate students, will produce
graduate students (Master and Doctoral levels) in cluster grid processing and will
strengthen the relationship with community colleges and high school and business
partnerships.
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Project Description
There are many students have a great desire to study and obtain knowledge in the field
of high performance computing and clustering. The equipment of these technologies
provided from business and TEGP will allow them the opportunity to reach career goals
and positively contribute to society. The laboratory that is designed with the next
generation technology equipment will facilitate the sharing of information with peers that
is vital to the training of students. Grid computing is an emerging area of technology,
where industry standards and technology are current under development. It is of high
interest to many areas of the business community. Students and educators that understand
and can apply this technology will have a competitive advantage in the workplace.
Specific, technical and educational joint development projects have yet to be determined
but are expected to be defined by the team once the cluster implementation phase is
underway. Areas of possible interest are:

Parallel application development.

Build an inventory discovery and mapping system (have clear real-time view of
what h/w and s/w resources exist).

Develop management tools (management program that can interoperate across
web servers, application servers, and database servers, routers, and storage
systems)

Extending the Linux shell(s) to incorporate useful grid computing concepts.
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
Improving a middleware, message passing transport, application, and user
interface.

Gaining experience in cluster administration (installation, configuration, backup,
etc.)

Gaining expertise in securing clusters that are made available to a computer grid.

Gaining knowledge in maintaining a grid fabric.
Plan
To establish computer clusters accessible to all members via the Internet. .
Purpose
Provide opportunities for students, educators, and industry to participate on projects of
mutual interest. To create an opportunity for students to demonstrate their skills to the
business community by providing a continuous pool of highly qualified students which
are readily available to meet the needs of business today. To create an opportunity for
businesses to work with students on “real-world” projects that interests them both. To
converge the educational and training needs of students and area businesses so that they
are both provided a mutual competitive edge.
Goals

To create a functioning computer grid “fabric” between the various team
organizations.

To identify project areas of mutual interest.

To collaborate of identified projects.

To share compute resources with the Grid community.
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
To share ideas, how to’s, and better ways.

To produce undergraduate students that are knowledgeable in cluster era

To produce graduate students (Master and Doctoral) capable of growing of this
technology through research and teaching
Benefits
Gaining knowledge of value to the business community- Gaining hands-on expertise
in this emerging market area is of immense interest to the business community and could
provide a competitive edge to those who take an interest in obtaining expertise in this
area by doing.
Access to a virtual supercomputer”The whole is greater than the sum of the parts” hold
true. The combination of all the compute clusters in the grid is greater than the individual
clusters alone. The combination of clusters in the grid behaves like a supercomputer at a
fraction of the cost.
Faster Project Results the extra compute power made available by the grid can directly
impact an organization's ability meet shortening product development cycle timelines and
accelerate research and development efforts.
Cluster Project Plan
Scope
Project scope is limited to the combined, voluntary support of the identified educational
organizations such as community colleges and high schools. For example, each school
has individually agreed to install, configure, administrate, and make available their
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respective cluster(s) to other members in the Grid Group. Scope could be extended to
joint projects once projects and student resources have been identified.
One goal is to have the students trained on the use of the equipment and to help them
develop the ability to master the fundamentals of this technology. Having access to real
world server equipment will aid in the research and development of new ways to solve
complex issues in high performance computing.
1. creativity in the selection of the project and in all stages of its execution,
including oral presentations
2. mastery of cumulative knowledge and knowledge acquired as a result of his/her
involvement on the project
3. ability to conduct applied research both, independently and as a part of team
4. project management and leadership skills
5. practical skills
6. written communication skills
7. oral communication skills
8. ability to integrate technology
9. principles of ethics and professionalism
10. publishing scientific papers
11. writing thesis for Master and Doctoral degrees
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The resources that are provided will help our students develop new solutions to existing
challenges in the field of grid clustering and high performance computing. The sharing
of knowledge and resources will add to the quality of education we provide our students.
The community will benefit from highly qualified graduates to empower the next
generation of successful businesses with high performance computing requirements.
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