September 4, 2003

Boise State Receives National Science Foundation Grant

The National Science Foundation has awarded Boise State University $300,000 in a major research infrastructure grant to fund the development of a Beowulf computer cluster on the Boise State campus.  A Beowulf cluster is a type of supercomputer that is constructed from standard personal computer components and runs under the Open Source, Linux operating system. Geosciences professor Paul Michaels and computer science professor Amit Jain, will guide students and faculty in the fabrication, development and use of the cluster. Initially, participating faculty from the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences will conduct research on the cluster, solving computationally intensive problems in diverse fields that include atmospheric and ocean fluid dynamics, seismology, electromagnetics, neural networks, hydrology, mathematics, physics and engineering. Questions about the cluster can be directed to Michaels at pm@cgiss.boisestate.edu. -30- Contact Paul Michaels Geosciences department 208 426-1929 Media contact Pat Pyke communications and marketing 208 426-1987