CompCore

Cyberinfrastructure for Interdisciplinary Research

College of Science

The CompCore center at California State University East Bay has been formed to provide access to high-performance computing and high-resolution, immersive display and interaction devices to students and faculty in the College of Science.  Creation of a shared facility will result in interdisciplinary interactions that can be rare in the typically hierarchical university environment. 

Face-to-face collaborations between local faculty and students will be enabled, as well as collaborations across time and space, through synchronous and asynchronous communication tools.  The CompCore facility will provide a platform to conduct research, support learning and discovery, and attract students to study the sciences and engineering at Cal State East Bay. 

CompCore will operate a cluster of computers for high-performance computing, and a classroom for interacting with data and computations using a variety of modes of interaction, including a high-resolution display wall, immersive projection, surround sound, and a variety of interaction devices.  The University has provided two rooms in a new building currently under construction.

Designed around this specific project,  the rooms have sufficient power, cooling, and network resources.

CompCore’s computing equipment is meant to support a range of research and instruction across disciplines in science and engineering.  The use of a generic Linux-based cluster reflects current practices for creating high-performance computing resources in various disciplines of mathematics, computer science, and computational sciences. Such systems are built from commodity computers, connected with Ethernet.  We focus on affordability, and emphasize the use of free and open source software.  Cost is a primary concern for most educational institutions, and we intend to share our experiences and tools.   We use the Rocks clustering software from the San Diego Supercomputing Center, which greatly simplifies installation and maintenance of clusters of fairly heterogeneous nodes.  We also intend to use Rocks to drive the high-resolution display.  Besides supporting a wide range of free and open source software, Linux supports a number of important commercial tools such as SAS.

Through studies of humans interacting with computational tools, we can devise strategies to enhance the educational effectiveness of these tools.  Modern development methodologies such as agile programming are used and are themselves the subject of research.

CompCore has a direct fiber link to the state-wide CENIC network, which in turn connects to national fiber networks such as the National Lambda Rail.  Running at speeds matching or exceeding that of local network connections, these “next-generation” Internet connections are changing the ways we share data and computing resources.  This advanced connectivity supports new forms of collaboration such as grid computing and telepresence.

The CompCore classroom is designed to create an immersive environment for collaborative learning and discovery.   It features a high-resolution tiled display, surround sound and immersive projection technology, as well as a variety of interaction devices.  The vision of the work is to be able to turn any classroom into an immersive environment at moderate expense.  Video projection technology is experiencing rapid commoditization, with prices falling rapidly while features improve.  A flexible, reconfigurable immersive projection system will be built using one or more Linux machines and projectors.

Immersive audio will be created using commodity multichannel sound cards, amplifiers, and speakers.  Software based on simple, well-understood amplitude panning technology will be used to extend tools such as the open source OpenAL audio library.  This will allow existing OpenAL-based applications to transparently use the equipment.

Located on the Hayward Hills campus of Cal State East Bay, the CompCore facility is housed in the Wayne and Gladys Valley Business and Technology Building. 

§       10 Gbps fiber to National Lambda Rail

§       Wireless networking

§       High-performance computing cluster

§       Cluster-driven display wall

§       Multi-channel audio

§       Immersive projection

§       Various interaction devices