The Massachusetts state administration, MIT, the University of Massachusetts, Boston University, EMC, and Cisco have signed an agreement committing to establish a world-class, high-performance computing center in Holyoke, and a statewide collaborative research program. This decision positions Massachusetts to be a leader in the application and development of the next generation of computing technologies, and will spur the creation of an innovation economy district in Holyoke. High-performance computing has become an increasingly critical tool for both academic and corporate research across a variety of fields, including biotechnology and alternative energy. The commitment of the center’s partners to collaborate with state, academic, and business institutions across industries will create jobs in Western Massachusetts and power scientific and technological research to ignite regional economic growth.

The Holyoke high performance computing center is projected to cost about $100 million. The Holyoke locations was chosen because of the availability of green hydroelectric power from the nearby Connecticut River.

“Innovation is our calling card in Massachusetts, and this partnership with MIT, the University of Massachusetts, Boston University, EMC and Cisco Systems will usher in the next generation of high-performance computing and set us apart from our competitors,” said Governor Deval Patrick. “The potential for breakthrough technologies and research is enormous, and both the center and this collaboration will undoubtedly serve to lift up the City of Holyoke and regional economies throughout Western Massachusetts.”

“Many of today’s most important technical challenges will yield only to the power of high-performance computing, from modeling climate change to managing a massively complex ‘smart grid’ and developing novel materials for 21st century technologies, from biomedicine to batteries,” said MIT President Susan Hockfield. “At MIT, we’re committed to help drive the effort to deliver state-of-the-art computing performance to universities and companies across the region, through aggressive development of the Holyoke HPCC. Built to capitalize on local sources of green power, it will provide new opportunities for partnerships among private industry, government and the academy, and foster the Commonwealth’s innovation-based economy.”

“The creation of a High Performance Computing Center will advance the Commonwealth’s status as a global research and innovation leader and will spur the state’s ideas-driven economy,” said University of Massachusetts President Jack M. Wilson. “That this High Performance Computing Center would be conspicuously green, relying on wind and hydro power to meet its considerable energy needs, adds luster to what is a truly exciting project.”

“This initiative represents an excellent opportunity for our universities, industries, and the Commonwealth to combine our strengths to develop a state-of-the-art computational resource and to collaborate in research and development that will drive the state’s economy, and keep Massachusetts in the forefront of information technology,” said Boston University President Robert Brown.

“The process of innovation truly thrives when government, education and private industry lock arms as one,” said Joe Tucci, EMC chairman, president and CEO. “Working together, the Holyoke High-Performance Computing Center (HPCC) is tapping into a whole new source of vision and innovation, and keeping Massachusetts at the forefront as a global technology leader.”

“We applaud the transformational vision this program proposes – which will strengthen our regional science, technology, and innovation leadership while creating a unique “innovation district” in the Pioneer Valley built upon green and cost competitive energy, strong local talent, and exceptional fiber connectivity. We also view the exceptional collaboration emerging across government, industry and academia as a strong foundation for broader success in the Commonwealth and the region,” said Paul Bosco, VP/GM & Site Executive, New England Development Center, Cisco Systems, Inc.

“This is a cutting edge concept, and its impact on the city will be significant,” said Congressman John Olver. “The Computing Center will dovetail nicely with other big projects underway in Holyoke like the Multimodal Center and the Canalwalk. This is a very exciting time for the city.”

“This is an incredible opportunity for this Gateway City to re-invent itself and Holyoke cannot thank Governor Patrick and his economic development team enough for being our advocates,” said Mayor Sullivan. “I have long spoken to the issue of the ‘Holyoke advantage’, the difference is that Governor Patrick listened and understood how the City and the state could leverage their assets to create something powerful. It is a beautiful day in Holyoke.”

“This is an absolute game-changer for Holyoke, the Pioneer Valley, Western Massachusetts and the entire Commonwealth,” said Representative Michael Kane. “I deeply appreciate the commitment of the Governor, the Presidents of the Universities and the CEO’s of the companies to make this a reality and very much look forward to partnering with them all.”

This agreement is the continuation of a collaboration first established at a meeting convened last October between university leaders at MIT and UMass, industry executives from EMC and Cisco, and the Commonwealth. All parties have worked collectively in support of a center and research agenda that would have multiple functions and benefits to the state’s innovation economy.

Holyoke high performance computing center will receive funding from a variety of agencies, including NSF, NASA, DOE, NIH, and DARPA. Of these, NSF is the most significant source. There are several funding opportunities in the area of green computing at the NSF and DOE. DOE has recently announced a new program in energy-efficient computing and communication (50M total funding). NSF is working on a new program on the “Science of Power Management” which directly targets the green computing area. A variety of other program funds various facets of green computing research:

  • Data Intensive Computing, which is part of the Cross-Cutting Programs solicitation from the
    Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate. This program has $10M
    allocated, to be divided among 10 – 20 $500K small, $1.2M medium, and $3M large, awards. It
    specifically targets applications of computer science to large scientific datasets.
  • High-End Computing University Research Activity ($10M, divided into 10 – 20 awards of $500K
    to $1M) and the Information Integration and Informatics portion of the Information and
    Intelligent Systems: Core Programs solicitation ($90M, 200 awards). These opportunities are
    particularly focused on computational science.
  • The Software and Hardware foundations program and the Multi-core chip design and
    architecture program directly target various facets of computing systems research related to
    green computing; these program have funding levels of $10M and $6M, respectively.
  • The Computing Systems Research and the Networking Technology and Systems programs also
    encourage applications-oriented research, in addition to more traditional CS areas such as
    operating systems and networking (both of which are key to green computing).
  • Computer science is also well-placed for submitting to the Computing Expeditions program,
    which seeks to make awards of $10M over 5 years for major new initiatives. This year, our
    Expeditions proposal in the area of high performance computing made it into the semi-final
    review stage, and we anticipate submitting again with a stronger proposal next year.