Washington State University recently cut the ribbon on a high-performance computer, heralding a new era of gleaning insights from large and unwieldy masses of data.
An investment of $2.7 million over five years, the Kamiak computer operates on a “condominium” model: researchers purchase nodes, which guarantees storage and computing power. Nodes not in use are available to other researchers, which gives all “investors” more computing resources than if they bought stand-alone systems.
Kamiak is “an essential starting point, but it’s also something that can grow tremendously according to our needs,” said Aurora Clark, an associate professor of chemistry who has developed computer programs to analyze molecular networks.