Southern Ontario Smart Computing & Innovation Platform

1. Southern Ontario Smart Computing & Innovation Platform

2. SOSCIPHub-and-Spoke Model U of T Node University of Ontario Institute of Technology Queen’s University University of Waterloo McMaster University University of Ottawa IBM Data Centre SMEs SMEs Western Node

3. Goals • The 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

4. Collaborative Research Areas • Health – • Neuroscience and • healthcare applications • Intelligent Urban Infrastructure – • energy, water, transportation • Agile Computing – next generation supercomputers

5. 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)

6. 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

7. SOSCIP Budget • Equipment: • 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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