Southern Ontario Smart Computing &
Innovation Platform
Kick-off University Partners Meeting
September 18, 2012
Michael Owen, VP Research, Innovation & International, UOIT on behalf of Consortium partners
SOSCIP
Hub-and-Spoke Model
U of T
Node
University
of Waterloo
University
of Ottawa
SMEs
IBM Data
Centre
McMaster
University
SMEs
Queen’s
University
University
of Ontario
Institute of
Technology
Western
Node
Goals
The goals of the SOSCIP include:
• Develop an “ecosystem” that encourages and supports
HPC applications to address pressing grand challenges in
research and society (energy, health, mega-cities)
• Expand knowledge base of people who understand how to
apply HPC and analytics to address these challenges
• Create new opportunities for our academic and industry
researchers, including graduate students and PDFs
• Generate creative triple helix environment -- three-way
collaboration and knowledge exchange between
universities, IBM, and SMEs
• Create new products and services that can be
commercialized in Ontario and applied domestically and
around the globe
Collaborative Research Areas
1. Health –
Neuroscience and
healthcare applications
2. Intelligent Urban Infrastructure –
energy, water, transportation
3. Agile Computing – next generation
supercomputers
Supporting Infrastructure
IBM Investments
Two primary platforms:
• High Performance Computing
• Cloud Computing
Additional investment:
• Agile Computing Platform (Western)
• Blue Gene/Q Development Platform (U of T)
• New IBM Canada Data Centre – next generation centre
for cloud and HPC (Barrie )
• Expansion of IBM Canada Software Lab – big data
applications (Markham)
Investment
$20 M – FedDev Ontario
− $17M in computing infrastructure
− $3M in on-campus personnel and facilities
$7 M – Ontario Centres of Excellence
project funding, competitive process, with SME
$8 M – Strategic Jobs and Investment Fund, Ontario
– investment in IBM to assist with job creation
$175 M investment from IBM to upgrade or create new
facilities, in-kind contributions etc.
TOTAL: ~$210 M
SOSCIP Budget
Equipment:
•
HPC infrastructure
•
Cloud Computing Infrastructure
•
Agile Computing Infrastructure
Total: $17M
People & Facilities:
•
Facility Renovations
•
Consortium Coordinator
•
Technical Staff (2)
•
Graduate Internships
•
Post-doctoral Fellowships
Total: $3M
Benefits to University Partners
• Access to advanced computing infrastructure
• Increased contract revenue – universities will be able to
participate in new collaborative R&D projects with industry
• Enable technology transfer – through better assessment of
technologies, validation of technologies at industrial scale,
and the possible bundling of technologies from partner
universities.
• Unique training opportunities for our students – exposure
and access to state-of-the-art equipment coupled with
technical and research expertise, and opportunities for
industrial internships and work experiences
Benefits to Ontario/Canada
• Establish a state-of-the-art R&D ICT cluster in Southern
Ontario
• Address important questions facing Canadian society
• Create highly skilled jobs
• Maintain and sustain investments in HPC
• Non-traditional research partnerships – strengthen public
innovation system in Southern Ontario through research
collaborations between industry and the region’s colleges
and universities
Governance Structure
• Board of Directors
− Made up of VPRs (or designates) from each university
partner + senior representative from IBM
− Jointly chaired by U of T and Western
• Scientific Advisory Committee
− Appointed by board – member from each consortium
member
− Chaired by U of T
− Meets bi-weekly
− Reviews and evaluates proposals for collaborative
projects
Next Steps
• ANNOUNCEMENT OF PHASE II CALL FOR
PROPOSALS (Next Week)
• HPC RESOURCES
• PDF
• GRADUATE STUDENTS
• DO THE RESEARCH
• SPIN OUT KNOWLEDGE, TECHNOLOGY,
STUDENTS
• KNOWLEDGE UPTAKE BY INDUSTRY
Call for Proposals
Phase II
• Purpose
– Facilitate new opportunities for researchers to
access HPC, Blue Gene/Q, Cloud and Agile
computing environments
– Generating collaborations amongst
consortium member universities, IBM and
SMEs
– Create new products and/or services
Priority Areas
• Agile Computing:
– involves the use of hardware accelerators (FPGAs) and
software to address challenging problems
• Health Applications:
– research on the functioning of the human brain as well as
analysis of medical and health data for improvement of
healthcare and our understanding of disease and
treatments
• Smarter Infrastructure:
– involves computational approaches for improving living
environments, including transportation, water, energy and
environmental systems
• Duration
– End date: March 31, 2014
• Available resources
– Computing resources
• BlueGene/Q
• Aglile and Cloud infrastructrues
– Human Resources
•
•
•
•
Cloud/Agile and BlueGene/Q technical Support
Cross team support (data architects, etc.)
Project specific PDFs
Graduate student internships