Administration

Hewlett-Packard gift to benefit Institute for CyberScience

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Institute for CyberScience at Penn State has received a gift-in-kind of 50 graphics processing units (GPUs) from Hewlett-Packard Company to support its interdisciplinary research in the science of computing. These GPUs, valued at $100,000, will assist the institute’s computer modeling collaborations spanning many departments and programs.

“This generous gift from Hewlett-Packard will greatly enhance our ability to support groundbreaking research across the University through the Institute for CyberScience,” said Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School Hank Foley. “Having state-of-the-art equipment will allow our researchers to stay on the cutting edge and continue advancing knowledge. We are incredibly grateful to Hewlett-Packard for partnering with Penn State in this way.”

Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Hewlett-Packard is the world’s largest technology company, specializing in personal computing, printing, software and information technology.

GPUs allow users in many cases to scale their computational research and drastically improve performance above and beyond that afforded by traditional CPUs. Researchers in fields as varied as energy, life sciences, materials and social sciences rely on GPUs to conduct their work, in conjunction with programming and systems support from the Research Computing and Cyberinfrastructure (RCC) Unit at Penn State. The donated devices, produced by Nvidia and donated by Hewlett-Packard, will allow the Institute for CyberScience to serve researchers across the University with the latest technology, key to its mission of supporting interdisciplinary discovery at Penn State.

“Partnering with Penn State will be mutually beneficial for our company and the field of computer science,” said Bryan Marler, director of High Performance Computing sales at Hewlett-Packard. “Hewlett-Packard believes in empowering people through the use of technology, and what better way to support that mission than to assist Penn State’s researchers.”

The Institute for CyberScience at Penn State works to enhance the University’s presence in the field both domestically and internationally by promoting best practices in computer-based research while allowing researchers to innovate. It also works to increase the visibility of Penn State’s computational science research and support those faculty, students and staff in their work.

The gift from Hewlett-Packard will help the University to reach the goals of For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students, which is directed toward a shared vision of Penn State as the most comprehensive, student-centered research university in America. The University is engaging Penn State’s alumni and friends as partners in achieving six key objectives: ensuring student access and opportunity, enhancing honors education, enriching the student experience, building faculty strength and capacity, fostering discovery and creativity, and sustaining the University’s tradition of quality. The campaign’s top priority is keeping a Penn State degree affordable for students and families. The For the Future campaign is the most ambitious effort of its kind in Penn State’s history, with the goal of securing $2 billion by 2014.

Last Updated April 21, 2017