Recent Videos posted to Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center on MIT Video

Growing MGHPCC - Presentation to the Governor (thru April 2012)

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 07:03:50 GMT

Slideshow from ground-breaking through completion of exterior construction presented to Governor Patrick in spring 2012.

Quantum Mechanics, Squishy Materials, and Extreme Photosynthesis

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 19:16:32 GMT

Typically plants need an average of at least a few hundred watts per square meter of solar radiation to survive. At depths of a few hundred meters down in the ocean, the amount of solar radiation decays to around a millionth of the surface intensity so that photosynthesizing organisms, at such depths only receive 10-4 Wm-2 of radiation.

MGHPCC seed fund awardees Alán Aspuru-Guzik (Quantum Chemistry, Harvard) and Alfredo Alexander-Katz (Materials Science, MIT) are studying the properties of a photosynthetic bacteria (Chlorobium Tepidum, also known as Green sulphur bacteria) that manages to survive in this low energy environment. Their work seeks to understand the interplay between biomolecular structure and efficient light harvesting on the quantum scale and how this could lead to radical new approaches to energy generation. The MGHPCC seed fund work is allowing Alfredo and Alan to combine computational techniques from materials science with computational thinking from quantum chemistry.

In this video Alfredo and Alan describe more about their collaboration and the new science it is enabling.

Video by Helen Hill.

Under the Hood - Part II: The Data Hall

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 07:04:37 GMT

Following on where Under the Hood - Part I: The Ground Floor left off, in this video, the MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) manager for the MGHPCC construction project, Greg Webster (Turner Construction) narrates a second virtual tour of the building, this time focussing on the upper floor of the two storey structure. Using the building information modeling tool Navisworks the tour provides a clear picture of how the computers will be housed, with multiple "pods", being serviced by a complex system of distributed power, cooling, sprinkler and network infrastructure.

With a capacity in excess of 10MW, the center is power hungry. Drawing as much electricity as a small town into a space the size of a gymnasium calls for creative thinking to get the required energy in and take the heat and data out.

The Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC) is a ground breaking collaboration of five of the state’s most research-intensive universities, state government and private industry — the most significant collaboration among government, industry and public and private universities in the history of the Commonwealth, and the first facility in the nation of its kind.

The MGHPCC facility provides the state-of-the-art computational infrastructure, indispensible in the increasingly data-rich environment of the post-genomic revolution. Today, virtually no major breakthrough in science – be it be designing a new drug, developing new materials for clean energy or predicting climate change — can take place without computation, which has become the “third leg” of scientific discovery, along with theory and experimentation. With this increased role of computation, the MGHPCC represents a critical piece of infrastructure that will allow the Commonwealth to attract and retain the very best scientists, secure federal and private funding to support scientific research in the state, and continue to fuel the state’s innovation economy.

Read more: http://www.mghpcc.org/

Under the Hood- Part I: The Ground Floor

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:37:30 GMT

Right now (early Spring 2012) the frame of the Bigelow Street building is obscured within a white plastic bubble, protecting it from the New England winter. Inside, however, work forges ahead as mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems in support of the future data center are installed. In this video, Greg Webster of Turner Construction, narrates a "fly-through" or virtual tour of the lower floor of the two storey structure as seen using the building information modeling tool Navisworks. Revealed is the intricate maze of cooling pipes and pumps, valves and electrial infrastructure that will form the under-belly of the second floor data hall above.

As part of a focus on energy efficiency, the design includes a chiller bypass capability. This allows heat to be vented (1) solely through cooling towers, when outdoor ambient air and humidity conditions are favorable or (2) partially through cooling towers with some chiller assist. Based on historical temperature and humidity data for the nearby Chicopee Falls / Westover Air Force Base NOAA station, it is estimated that 80% of the cooling will be achieved without chillers.

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Watch it Grow - Part II: Erection of the Steel Frame

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 22:24:40 GMT

Time-lapse movie of the growing MGHPCC building - From August 25, 2011 with foundation digging, concrete pouring, and construction of the steel frame (completed November 29, 2011). The building is expected to be completed by the end of 2012.

Watch it Grow - Part I: Demolition & Site Preparation

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 22:16:56 GMT

Time-lapse movie of demolition (which began May 9, 2011) through site clearing. The building is scheduled to be completed towards the end of 2012.

Watch it Grow

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:51:44 GMT

Time-lapse movie of the growing MGHPCC building - From demolition (which began May 9, 2011), through site clearing, foundation digging, concrete pouring, construction of the steel frame (November 29, 2011) and on into mid-December. The building is expected to be completed by the end of 2012.