We recently threw a party to welcome a new colleague to campus. That’s not standard practice, but in this case, it was more than just a welcome. It was a celebration of people working together toward an exciting future.
Our new colleague is a supercomputer faculty have nicknamed the Cardinal Research Cluster (CRC). CRC will help us make scientific discoveries, advance knowledge in the humanities and basically delve into any seemingly unfathomable mass of information a faculty member can find — and come away with life-changing answers.
We’re really excited about where CRC will allow us to take our research efforts — and you should be, too. CRC could lead to
- More collaboration within the university, regionally, nationally — even globally
- More new medications to treat cancer, diabetes and other diseases
- New alternative energy sources
- A better understanding of how a person’s genetic makeup determines how disease manifests itself
- Answers to questions we haven’t even thought to ask or, if we did, did not have the tools to answer them.
CRC has a peak speed of more than 25 teraflops (trillion calculations per second). That’s roughly 1,100 times faster than today’s average desktop computer. When it is fully operational later this month, we expect it to rank among the top 500 supercomputers in the world.
We know that CRC won’t always have a place in the top 500. We also know that no matter what that ranking is, the really important thing is that CRC will allow our researchers to work together in new and exciting ways.
We’ve had tremendous growth in our research funding, capacity and output over the last decade. CRC positions us to reach the next level.
The courage to question convention.
The passion to break new ground.
The insight to champion community.
The imagination to pursue the undiscovered.
The will to achieve greatness.
The promise of a limitless future.
The people to bring it to life.
It's Happening Here.