SciNet / en 福利姬自慰receives $52 million to upgrade SciNet supercomputer /news/u-t-receives-52-million-upgrade-scinet-supercomputer <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">福利姬自慰receives $52 million to upgrade SciNet supercomputer</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2024-10/waterloo_october_2024-crop.jpg?h=5a646a6b&amp;itok=VTppwJVT 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2024-10/waterloo_october_2024-crop.jpg?h=5a646a6b&amp;itok=sb_1lL2p 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2024-10/waterloo_october_2024-crop.jpg?h=5a646a6b&amp;itok=oWHFmwD- 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2024-10/waterloo_october_2024-crop.jpg?h=5a646a6b&amp;itok=VTppwJVT" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-10-22T11:54:56-04:00" title="Tuesday, October 22, 2024 - 11:54" class="datetime">Tue, 10/22/2024 - 11:54</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p><em>From left: Charmaine Dean, Timothy Chan,鈥疊ryan May, Nolan Quinn, George Ross, Bardish Chagger, Ranil Sonnadara and Eleanor McMahon (supplied image)&nbsp;</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/adam-elliott-segal" hreflang="en">Adam Elliott Segal</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/scinet" hreflang="en">SciNet</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">The upgraded supercomputer, housed at 福利姬自慰and available to researchers across Canada,&nbsp;will boast roughly three times the computing power of its predecessor</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The University of Toronto will receive more than $52 million to upgrade one of the fastest supercomputers in Canada 鈥 a shared resource housed at 福利姬自慰that allows researchers across the country to address key challenges in areas such as health care, drug discovery, sustainable transportation, AI and advanced manufacturing.</p> <p>In&nbsp;<a href="https://alliancecan.ca/en/latest/news/alliance-awards-48m-university-waterloo-and-university-toronto-renew-advanced-research-computing" target="_blank">a recent announcement</a>, the Digital Research Alliance of Canada 鈥 a non-profit organization funded by the Canadian government 鈥 and the Government of Ontario committed to investing more than $95 million into advanced research computing (ARC) in Ontario at host sites at 福利姬自慰and the University of Waterloo.&nbsp;</p> <p>The more than $52 million earmarked for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.scinethpc.ca/" target="_blank">U of T鈥檚 SciNet</a>&nbsp;鈥 which includes matching funds from the province and Compute Ontario 鈥 will go toward replacing the&nbsp;<a href="/news/new-u-t-supercomputer-most-powerful-research-machine-canada">Niagara supercomputer</a>&nbsp;with a new computer network with roughly three times the raw computing power, more GPU capacity and storage boosted by an estimated 80 per cent.</p> <p>鈥淭his computational infrastructure is critical for our community and for the Canadian research community at large 鈥 from the biomedical sciences to aerospace manufacturing,鈥 said&nbsp;<strong>Timothy Chan</strong>, U of T鈥檚 associate vice-president and vice-provost,&nbsp;strategic initiatives&nbsp;and a professor in the department of&nbsp;mechanical and industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淚t supports research in all fields, plus users benefit from the extensive education and training programming offered by SciNet.鈥</p> <p>He added that the investment supports Canada鈥檚 desire to lead in advanced technologies, and that it comes on the heels of U of T&nbsp;<a href="https://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards-funding/university-professors/">University Professor</a>&nbsp;Emeritus&nbsp;<strong>Geoffrey Hinton</strong>&nbsp;<a href="/news/geoffrey-hinton-wins-nobel-prize">being awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics</a>&nbsp;for laying the foundations for today鈥檚 AI boom through his seminal work on deep learning.</p> <p>鈥淏y expanding Canada鈥檚 supercomputing capabilities, we ensure that the country continues to excel in science and research while staying competitive on the global stage,鈥&nbsp;<strong>Fran莽ois-Phillipe Champagne</strong>, Canada鈥檚 minister of innovation, science and industry, said in a statement.</p> <p>Chan, for his part, said the shared computing infrastructure, which will utilize a more sustainable, state-of-the-art cooling system, is a savvy use of public funding.</p> <p>鈥淭hese investments result in cost savings,鈥 he said. 鈥淥ntario鈥檚 publicly funded ARC ecosystem costs users 80 per cent less than commercial cloud systems.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p>He said students and researchers across Canada should be encouraged by the news.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淚t's a unique resource,鈥 he said. 鈥淚f my students are doing computational research, they can use the cloud, which is expensive. Or they can build their own computer to do it, but they鈥檙e not going to have the same kind of power, scale or expert support as something like SciNet.</p> <p>鈥淚t plays a big role in being able to speed up research, speed up discovery with whatever they're working on and access more computational memory, more storage and more computational power.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p>For example, Chan says students can run an algorithm at much faster speeds and test multiple algorithms at the same time 鈥 something that鈥檚 not always possible on local machines.</p> <p>鈥淓quipping the next generation with job-ready skills in high-performance computing, machine learning and AI is critical to industries including manufacturing, automotive, finance, and the life sciences. When we invest in advanced research computing, we help our students get skilled jobs and attract highly skilled workers to Ontario.鈥</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 22 Oct 2024 15:54:56 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 310057 at AMD鈥檚 supercomputing partnerships with U of T, other universities to take centre stage at CES /news/amd-s-supercomputing-partnerships-u-t-other-universities-take-centre-stage-ces <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">AMD鈥檚 supercomputing partnerships with U of T, other universities to take centre stage at CES</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-1200859171.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ta6m-ny8 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/GettyImages-1200859171.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=0o-gI_b2 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/GettyImages-1200859171.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=YVTmjeC8 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-1200859171.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ta6m-ny8" alt="A cell phone displays the logo for the consumer electronics show"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>rahul.kalvapalle</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2021-01-08T16:32:05-05:00" title="Friday, January 8, 2021 - 16:32" class="datetime">Fri, 01/08/2021 - 16:32</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p>(photo by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)</p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/rahul-kalvapalle" hreflang="en">Rahul Kalvapalle</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/industry-partnerships" hreflang="en">Industry Partnerships</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/temerty-faculty-medicine" hreflang="en">Temerty Faculty of Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/scinet" hreflang="en">SciNet</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/hospital-sick-children" hreflang="en">Hospital for Sick Children</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/occupational-therapy" hreflang="en">Occupational Therapy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/united-states" hreflang="en">United States</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/university-health-network" hreflang="en">University Health Network</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The University of Toronto鈥檚 partnership with processor giant AMD, which underpins supercomputing applications for COVID-19 and other health research, is set to be highlighted on one of the world鈥檚 biggest technology stages: the annual CES conference.</p> <p>The four-day conference, held virtually this year because of the pandemic, will kick off next week and includes a keynote from Lisa Su, AMD鈥檚 chief executive, on the future of high-performance&nbsp;computing. That includes the company鈥檚 partnerships with educational institutions like U of T, which last fall <a href="/news/u-t-and-amd-launch-supercomputing-program-dedicated-big-data-health-research">launched a supercomputing platform with AMD focused on health research</a>.</p> <p><strong><img alt class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/UofT18360_0503AlexMihailidis001.jpg"></strong></p> <p><strong>Alex Mihailidis</strong>, U of T鈥檚 associate vice-president, international partnerships, said the fact that AMD will highlight its partnership with 福利姬自慰and other universities at CES is testament to U of T鈥檚 prowess in the growing area of supercomputing applications in health care as well as its leadership in strategic partnerships.</p> <p>鈥淐ompanies like AMD and others are coming to 福利姬自慰because they know about the capabilities we have as a university and that our faculty members have as researchers, and that we are producing some of the best research globally whether it鈥檚 around COVID-19, pandemic-based research or other work that鈥檚 happening in the health space,鈥 said Mihailidis, a professor in the department of occupational science and occupational therapy in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.</p> <p>鈥淭he fact that AMD wants to feature the partnership with 福利姬自慰really solidifies what we鈥檝e already known to this point, which is that 福利姬自慰is a leading global institution when it comes to this area of work.鈥</p> <p>U of T鈥檚 recent partnership with AMD allows researchers to harness the company鈥檚 processing power to foster advancements in vaccine development, drug discovery, mathematical modelling and other areas pertinent to COVID-19 and other health-related research. Dubbed SciNet4Health, the program will operate out of&nbsp;the facilities of SciNet, the U of T-based supercomputing consortium. &nbsp;</p> <p>Both Mihailidis<strong> </strong>and <strong>Daniel Gruner</strong>, chief technology officer at SciNet, will make appearances in Su鈥檚 keynote presentation at CES.</p> <p>SciNet4Health will draw on the experience of HPC4Health, a high-performance computing network established by UHN and the Hospital for Sick Children. The organizations plan to work together to meet the needs of the health sciences research community in and around Toronto.</p> <p>It is being powered by one petaflop of dedicated processing power, which was provided by AMD and is capable of one quadrillion calculations per second. The company鈥檚 donated equipment is scheduled to arrive at 福利姬自慰in the coming weeks, Mihailidis said.</p> <p>Mihailidis said the new equipment will make it possible to harness patient data in a way that wasn鈥檛 previously possible because of privacy and security considerations.</p> <p>鈥淭his will give 福利姬自慰researchers working in the area of COVID-19 and other areas of health the ability to conduct research that will allow them to use patient data itself, which is really important 鈥 especially for those who are trying to develop various types of models and different approaches related to personalized health,鈥 he said.</p> <p>鈥淲here COVID-19 is concerned, these resources will aid research trying to model the disease itself and model how the pandemic has impacted various types of demographics in Canada.鈥</p> <p>The AMD donation was made through the company鈥檚 COVID-19 HPC fund, established to provide leading research institutions with high-performance computing resources to aid research on COVID-19 and other health-care areas.</p> <p>Some of the other leading research institutions selected to receive support through the fund include MIT, Stanford University, Cambridge University and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.</p> <p>鈥淲e鈥檙e being featured alongside many other top-tier institutions from around the world,鈥 Mihailidis said.</p> <p>鈥淭he hope is that this partnership, cemented through this CES keynote, will help us develop more partnerships with other leading institutions as well.鈥</p> <h3><a href="https://bluedoor.utoronto.ca/">Learn more about industry partnerships at U of T</a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Fri, 08 Jan 2021 21:32:05 +0000 rahul.kalvapalle 167991 at 福利姬自慰supercomputing centre, IP education initiatives receive boost from Ontario budget /news/u-t-supercomputing-centre-ip-education-initiatives-receive-boost-ontario-budget <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">福利姬自慰supercomputing centre, IP education initiatives receive boost from Ontario budget</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-460324996.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=-q3WXATX 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/GettyImages-460324996.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=8QLcDbEe 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/GettyImages-460324996.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=--_irdsU 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-460324996.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=-q3WXATX" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>rahul.kalvapalle</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2020-11-06T12:12:02-05:00" title="Friday, November 6, 2020 - 12:12" class="datetime">Fri, 11/06/2020 - 12:12</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">A $3.5-million investment by the province into advanced research computing, a key strategic priority of Compute Ontario, is expected to benefit U of T's SciNet, home to Canada's most powerful research computer (Vince Talotta/Toronto Star via Getty Images)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/rahul-kalvapalle" hreflang="en">Rahul Kalvapalle</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/scinet" hreflang="en">SciNet</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/entrepreneurship" hreflang="en">Entrepreneurship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/munk-school-global-affairs-public-policy" hreflang="en">Munk School of Global Affairs &amp; Public Policy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ted-sargent" hreflang="en">Ted Sargent</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The University of Toronto鈥檚 SciNet supercomputing consortium, which provides researchers across Ontario with high-powered computational resources, will receive a further boost thanks to funding in the province鈥檚 latest budget.</p> <p><a href="https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/59065/ontarios-action-plan-protect-support-recover">The 2020 budget</a>, released Thursday, calls for a $3.5-million investment into advanced research computing, a key strategic priority of Compute Ontario, a non-profit organization devoted to supporting, streamlining and growing advanced computing projects in in the province.&nbsp;</p> <p>That includes&nbsp;support for SciNet, which is home to Canada's most powerful research computer 鈥 a machine that accelerates cutting-edge research in fields ranging from medical research and climate science to astrophysics and aerospace engineering.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淭oday鈥檚 provincial budget investment in the foundations of research and commercialization recognizes the essential role of post-secondary institutions in making Ontario a magnet for highly qualified, hard-working talent who drive innovation and growth,鈥 said <a href="https://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards-funding/university-professors/">University Professor</a> <strong>Ted Sargent</strong>, U of T鈥檚 vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.</p> <p>The investments come as institutions such as 福利姬自慰lead the way on research that will help end the pandemic and bring renewed prosperity and growth to Ontario. In the case of advanced research computing, that includes continued capacity for essential training of highly qualified personnel who use computational methods to address pressing questions facing society.</p> <p>Sargent said investments in SciNet benefit a wide variety of sectors, noting the consortium鈥檚 <a href="/news/u-t-and-amd-launch-supercomputing-program-dedicated-big-data-health-research">new partnership with processor giant AMD to launch SciNet4Health</a>, a supercomputing platform dedicated to powering health research, including on COVID-19.</p> <p>鈥淪ciNet has been an important catalyst for research discovery across fields from biomedical sciences to climate science and aerospace engineering,鈥 Sargent said. 鈥淪ciNet鈥檚 most recent partnership with AMD has created a supercomputing program that will advance health-care research and lead to advancements in drug discovery, vaccine development and genomics research.</p> <p>鈥淐ontinued investment in computing power and collaboration among institutions is important to strengthen Ontario鈥檚 knowledge foundations for years to come.鈥</p> <p>The budget also sets aside $1.5 million for the implementation of recommendations drawn up by the Expert Panel on Intellectual Property, which counts <strong>Shiri Breznitz</strong>, associate professor in the Munk School of Global Affairs &amp; Public Policy, among its members.</p> <p>That includes funding support that prioritizes IP creation, protection and commercialization, and includes development of intellectual property curriculums such as U of T鈥檚 recently launched <a href="https://entrepreneurs.utoronto.ca/ip-education-course/">IP Education Course</a>.</p> <p>Offered by 福利姬自慰Entrepreneurship, the free online course is designed to equip students, faculty, staff and alumni with a solid foundation in intellectual property and its applications. It was created by leading intellectual property experts and draws on resources from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and the Centre for International Governance and Innovation, among others. The course aims to help participants recognize when they create something of value and the steps required to protect it 鈥 all crucial skills in today鈥檚 knowledge economy.</p> <p>The course is the latest addition to programs available to 福利姬自慰innovators and entrepreneurs that have&nbsp;contributed to the&nbsp;creation of over 500 startups in the last decade.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Fri, 06 Nov 2020 17:12:02 +0000 rahul.kalvapalle 166342 at 福利姬自慰and AMD launch supercomputing program dedicated to big-data health research /news/u-t-and-amd-launch-supercomputing-program-dedicated-big-data-health-research <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">福利姬自慰and AMD launch supercomputing program dedicated to big-data health research</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/pic1.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=HzBz-Smd 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/pic1.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=_ZdpZS3a 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/pic1.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Q6DzXzs3 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/pic1.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=HzBz-Smd" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>rahul.kalvapalle</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2020-09-14T12:07:44-04:00" title="Monday, September 14, 2020 - 12:07" class="datetime">Mon, 09/14/2020 - 12:07</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p>(photo courtesy of SciNet)</p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/rahul-kalvapalle" hreflang="en">Rahul Kalvapalle</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/coronavirus" hreflang="en">Coronavirus</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/industry-partnerships" hreflang="en">Industry Partnerships</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/scinet" hreflang="en">SciNet</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-medicine" hreflang="en">Faculty of Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/international" hreflang="en">International</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/occupational-therapy" hreflang="en">Occupational Therapy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/university-health-network" hreflang="en">University Health Network</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The University of Toronto is teaming up with processor giant AMD to launch a supercomputing platform that will power the university鈥檚 health research 鈥 including on global threats such as COVID-19.</p> <p>The initiative, dubbed SciNet4Health, will allow researchers and clinician scientists at 福利姬自慰and its partner hospitals to access and analyze massive databases of patient health information 鈥 in a secure way that protects patients鈥 privacy 鈥 using technologies such as machine learning.</p> <p>SciNet4Health is made possible by <a href="https://www.amd.com/en/press-releases/2020-09-14-amd-covid-19-hpc-fund-adds-18-institutions-and-five-petaflops">AMD鈥檚 donation of one petaflop of dedicated processing power</a>, capable of a quadrillion calculations per second. It promises to lead to advancements in vaccine development, drug discovery, genomics research and mathematical modelling.</p> <p>鈥淭he new resources that we are receiving from AMD are going to allow us to set up the computing infrastructure that our health researchers need, especially right now during the time of COVID-19 when many of our faculty are working towards various solutions and positive outcomes for the pandemic,鈥 said <strong>Alex Mihailidis</strong>, U of T鈥檚 associate vice-president, international partnerships.</p> <p>鈥淯ntil today, 福利姬自慰did not have a dedicated computing infrastructure for health researchers that can support patient data, so this is going to have a significant impact on our research.鈥</p> <p>SciNet4Health will operate out of <a href="/news/new-u-t-supercomputer-most-powerful-research-machine-canada">the facilities of SciNet, the U of T-based supercomputing consortium</a> and home to Canada鈥檚 most powerful research supercomputer: Niagara. The program will allow SciNet, which has enabled advancements fields ranging from astrophysics to climate science, bring its capacity for cutting-edge data science to health research.</p> <p><strong>Daniel Gruner</strong>, chief technology officer at SciNet, said high-performance computing allows for complex calculations that regular computers simply can鈥檛 manage.</p> <p>鈥淚f you鈥檙e thinking of using AI and machine learning to try and make sense of huge and diverse data, you need these big computers because it can鈥檛 be done on a small machine 鈥 it requires a lot of math, a lot of computation, so you need computers that are specially geared towards that,鈥 he said.</p> <p>鈥淭he resources we鈥檙e receiving from AMD happen to be very heavy on GPUs [graphic processing units] that can run deep learning calculations a lot faster than a regular CPU can.鈥</p> <p>The donation by AMD, based in Santa Clara, Calif., consists of 20 鈥渃ompute nodes鈥 鈥 individual computers that comprise a high-performance computing cluster 鈥 each with eight GPUs.</p> <p>鈥淭hat鈥檚 a whole lot of power,鈥 Gruner said. &nbsp;</p> <p>It鈥檚 also power that will be completely in-house. Until now, 福利姬自慰health researchers in need of supercomputing worked through partner initiatives such as HPC4Health, a high-performance computing network established by UHN and the Hospital for Sick Children. SciNet4Health drew on HPC4Health鈥檚 experience using patient data to establish its procedures and protocols. The two organizations plan to work together to meet the needs of the health sciences research community in and around Toronto.</p> <p>鈥淭his is helping catalyse our ability to do more private health information research inside the university,鈥 said Gruner.</p> <p>For his part, Mihailidis says the machine learning and deep learning capabilities that will be provided by SciNet4Health will enable researchers to work with patient data to a degree that wasn鈥檛 previously possible due to security and privacy considerations. A professor in the department of occupational science and occupational therapy in the Faculty of Medicine, Mihailidis cited his research on aging and geriatrics as just one example of the kind of work that stands to benefit.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淲e鈥檝e been doing a lot of work around collecting data about what older people are doing in their homes and communities, and using machine learning, deep learning and other predictive analytics to determine changes in their health,鈥 he said.</p> <p>鈥淭he problem we鈥檝e had to date is that because we haven鈥檛 had secure servers that have allowed us to securely use patient data, we鈥檝e had to scrub the data to the point where the personal attributes are being removed 鈥 and because of that, our predictive models on their health aren鈥檛 as accurate as they could be if we were able to include the patient health data itself.</p> <p>鈥淗aving this type of resource at the university will allow us to take that type of research to the next level.鈥</p> <p>福利姬自慰is among a small group of universities to receive the supercomputing systems from AMD. Others include Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles.</p> <p>鈥淎MD is proud to be working with leading global research institutions to bring the power of high-performance computing technology to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic,鈥 said Mark Papermaster, AMD鈥檚 executive vice-president and chief technology officer.</p> <p>鈥淭hese donations of AMD EPYC and Radeon Instinct processors will help researchers not only deepen their understanding of COVID-19, but also help improve our ability to respond to future potential threats to global health.鈥</p> <h3><a href="https://bluedoor.utoronto.ca/">Learn more about industry partnerships at U of T</a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 14 Sep 2020 16:07:44 +0000 rahul.kalvapalle 165675 at