EPSCOR Grant to Create Scientific Computing Hub at Ole Miss

The Department of Energy has awarded a $1.8 million Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research grant to create an advanced computing hub on the UM campus. The project will allow students from Ole Miss, Jackson State University, the University of Southern Mississippi and elsewhere in the region to develop and maintain software that will support national and international particle physics experiments.

"This recognition from the Department of Energy shows that we have established strong research groups in this area of expertise," said Gavin Davies, associate professor of physics and astronomy. "What this allows us to do is continue supporting our current experiments with that expertise while training the next generation."

Large-scale high-energy physics experiments – such as the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment or Belle II – create massive amounts of data. The data must be distributed to different research centers worldwide to be processed, stored, and, finally, analyzed, said Jake Bennett, associate professor of physics and astronomy.

"There's so much data that it could not be processed at a single computing facility, no matter how big it is," he said. "Instead, we use computing resources at computing clusters around the world to store and analyze the data.

"The software that we are developing or will be working with is managing how that data is distributed and how users interact with it."

Students of every level will have an opportunity to help develop and maintain that software.

"Students are going to be able to develop very advanced computational skills that are a little different than what you would normally get in just a coding class or just from using software to do an analysis," said Breese Quinn, professor of physics and astronomy. "It's about being able to develop the capability to use software to go after these big data sets."

The project will also connect students and researchers across Mississippi with national experts through workshops and seminars. These discussions will focus on improving distributed computing tools and infrastructure and on finding better ways to use the massive datasets generated by high-energy physics experiments.

As big data becomes more prevalent across disciplines – from biomedical research to education and law – this skill set will apply to many students' career fields, he said.

"Mississippi is also in the process of building some pretty big data facilities that are going to be huge operations that will employ lots of folks, and those massive data hubs will need people that know how to work with large data sets, that know how to handle them, maintain them and operate them," Quinn said.

"The kind of skills the students will learn here would be applicable to that kind of work and anything that is working with big data."

Shuang Tu, Jackson State University professor of computer engineering, said opportunities like this one will help his students and others gain the experience necessary to secure graduate school positions, research careers and jobs in the field.

"Through this partnership, they'll have access to cutting-edge computing resources, mentorship from leading scientists and opportunities to attend workshops, internships and summer programs," he said. "It's more than just learning in the classroom; it's about being part of a global scientific community."

The two-year grant will also update an existing high-energy physics research facility in Lewis Hall, where the software the students and researchers create will be housed.

"That's one of the nice things about this: the structure is already in place," Bennett said. "We just need to update it."

The project will open doors for students across Mississippi and for the future of scientific research, Tu said.

"For Mississippi, it brings investment, opportunity and visibility to our universities and students, helping build a more competitive and inclusive workforce," he said. "For the Department of Energy, it strengthens the national research community by involving new voices and regions in solving big scientific challenges.

"And for the future of physics, it ensures that progress is powered by a diverse, skilled and inspired group of researchers. At its core, this is about creating opportunities and showing that world-class science can happen anywhere – including right here in Mississippi."

Top: Gavin Davies (left), an assistant professor of physics and astronomy; Jake Bennett, associate professor of physics and astronomy; and Breese Quinn, professor of physics and astronomy, check out the space in Lewis hall that will be renovated as a part of a grant from the Department of Energy's Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. The lab will become a scientific computing hub that will help researchers and students across the state create and maintain software that supports international physics experiments. Photo by Srijita Chattopadhyay/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services