Kick-off University Partners MeetingSeptember 18, 2012Michael Owen, VP Research, Innovation & International, UOIT on behalf of Consortium partners

Southern Ontario Smart Computing & Innovation Platform

SOSCIPHub-and-Spoke Model

SMEsIBM Data

Centre

U of T Node

Western Node

University of Waterloo

McMaster University

University of Ontario Institute of Technology

Queen’s University

University of Ottawa

SMEs

GoalsThe 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 InfrastructureIBM 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 BudgetEquipment:

• 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