National Institute for Computational Sciences

National Institute for Computational Sciences
Name	National Institute for Computational Sciences
Abbreviation	NICS
Established	2007
Location	Knoxville, Tennessee
Leader title	Director

Contents

National Institute for Computational Sciences The National Institute for Computational Sciences operated as a high-performance computing center at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory campus, providing large-scale resources to scientific teams from University of Tennessee, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, National Science Foundation, Department of Energy (United States), NASA, and private sector partners. It supported computational science projects spanning climate modeling tied to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, materials simulation linked to Materials Genome Initiative, and biomedical computing connected to National Institutes of Health. The institute hosted flagship systems and fostered collaborations among researchers from institutions such as Carnegie Mellon University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and Princeton University.

History

NICS was founded amid federal investments similar to those that created Oak Ridge National Laboratory initiatives and programs like the Advanced Simulation and Computing Program, with early funding and partnerships resembling awards from the National Science Foundation and cooperative programs with University of Tennessee. Its development paralleled deployments at other centers including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. Leadership teams included staff recruited from institutions such as IBM, Cray Inc., Intel, and NVIDIA Corporation, and the institute’s milestones were reported alongside projects at Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and Texas Advanced Computing Center. Over time NICS evolved in coordination with national efforts like the Department of Energy's Exascale Computing Project and regional initiatives connected to Southeast Universities Research Association.

The institute operated high-performance systems comparable to installations at National Center for Supercomputing Applications, with architectures influenced by designs from Cray Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM Power Systems, and accelerator technologies from NVIDIA Corporation and AMD. It provided petascale compute nodes, storage platforms akin to Panther-class arrays, and network fabrics using technologies from Infiniband Trade Association vendors such as Mellanox Technologies. Facility infrastructure included data centers meeting standards from ASHRAE and energy-efficiency efforts paralleling projects at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory. User support teams employed software stacks built on Linux, scheduling via systems like SLURM Workload Manager and resource management practices aligned with XSEDE and Open Science Grid protocols.

NICS supported multidisciplinary projects in areas similar to work at NOAA centers for atmospheric modeling, collaborations with National Center for Atmospheric Research on climate projections, and materials simulations using codes developed at Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Computational biology initiatives referenced methods from Broad Institute and Salk Institute for Biological Studies, while astrophysics modeling linked to researchers at Space Telescope Science Institute and Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Projects included scalable implementations of software such as LAMMPS, GROMACS, NAMD, Quantum ESPRESSO, and climate models akin to Community Earth System Model. The institute contributed to workflow and data management approaches seen at European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and petascale I/O strategies developed for LLNL and NERSC.

NICS ran training and workforce development programs coordinated with universities including University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Vanderbilt University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Duke University, and engaged students from Oak Ridge Associated Universities and Tennessee Technological University. Outreach included workshops modeled after tutorials at Supercomputing Conference and summer internships similar to DOE Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships and programs administered by National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates. Public engagement events echoed exhibitions at science centers such as Tennessee Aquarium and partnerships with regional STEM networks including SURA affiliates.

The institute partnered with national laboratories like Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory and academic partners including University of Tennessee, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Columbia University, Yale University, and University of Michigan. Industry collaborations involved vendors such as Intel, AMD, NVIDIA Corporation, Cray Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and research consortia like Consortia for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors. NICS engaged in federated projects with XSEDE, Open Science Grid, PRACE, and international partners including CERN and computational centers allied with European Grid Infrastructure.

Work carried out with NICS-affiliated teams earned recognition in forums similar to accolades presented at Supercomputing Conference and awards from agencies such as National Science Foundation and Department of Energy (United States). Performance achievements were highlighted in benchmarking communities that include Top500 and Green500, and research outputs influenced prize-winning studies associated with honors from organizations like American Physical Society, American Chemical Society, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Category:Supercomputer sites Category:Research institutes in Tennessee