LSU’s Center for Computation and Technology, formerly known as LSU CAPITAL, is going global.
The Albert Einstein Institute, the world’s leading center for gravitational physics in Berlin, Germany, has agreed to coordinate research and share resources with the University.
Representatives from the University and the Institute conversed Thursday morning using technology that allowed them to visually communicate with one another, though the participants were in different countries. Bernard Schutz, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics at AEI, and other AEI representatives, reached Baton Rouge through video screens in the LSU Life Sciences building.
Ed Seidel, director of LSU’s Center for Computation and Technology, led the meeting with a presentation describing the cooperative projects that the University and the Institute will undertake.
Seidel is well-prepared to bring the two programs together. Seidel, who worked at AEI for eight years, was head of the numeral relativity group until his appointment as LSU’s Director for the CCT eight months ago. He still holds a part-time appointment at the Institute.
Seidel said the CCT has three main focuses — research, education and economy — to improve LSU and the state of Louisiana. The new technology will not be limited to computer and science majors, but will span all majors and disciplines.
Steve Beck, interim director of the Laboratory for Creative Arts and Technologies at LSU, heads a department that combines visual and sound information. Using sound as a learning tool aids marine research when measuring density frequencies in rocks at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
Seidel said there are many different forms of information.
Data only produces numbers, Seidel said. Data interpretation through visual and sound simulations can distribute the message to a wide audience of various disciplines.
Seidel explained this idea of interdisciplinary cooperation through a visual simulation of black holes colliding. Through international collaboration, this simulation shows what Einstein predicted 100 years ago but scientists never actually have seen.
“With this new technology, we could see things we never dreamed of,” Seidel said. “The only way to deal with that is to do simulations.”
A single calculation as complex as the black hole’s can take 24 hours because of the huge amounts of data, so LSU and AEI are updating their supercomputers.
SuperMike, located in LSU’s Fred C. Frey Hall, and PEYOTE, located at AEI, are similar in size and capacity. AEI is doubling PEYOTE’s amount of processors with help from software producer Intel, and SuperMike and Intel also are upgrading the supercomputer’s processor capacity.
The two programs will continue black hole research, but also are focusing on creating a high bandwidth connection, or “grid,” between the University and Institute. The grid will allow the two sites to share computations and research.
Grids are the “hottest area of computer science,” Seidel said. Grid computers “harness activity on both sides”– U.S. and Europe –and make cooperation and sharing resources more effective.
Seidel said grids allow workers to submit jobs into the computer, which analyzes and computes the task . Many types of technology, such as cell phones, can monitor, interact and receive messages updating the user when jobs around the world are complete. Such global interaction links the computers of the world, regardless of location or affiliation.
As the program grows, more undergraduate and graduate students will participate, said Jade Ethridge, Seidel’s assistant. CCT will assign students who express interest in the projects and have the computer skills necessary for the job to specific projects and tasks.