Following a visit to the School of Computer Science, representatives from NVIDIA China and Asia Pacific donated the hardware to Dr Eugene Ch'ng from the School of Computer Sciences and Dr Eric Scheffel from Nottingham University Business School China (NUBS China).
The hardware – a top of the range general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) - will be used to support initial research into big data-distributed processing, large-scale social network analysis and ‘heterogeneous-agent economic modelling’.
Big data is produced by digital processes and social media exchanges. It is so large and complex that it is becoming difficult to process using standard computers and traditional database techniques, so researchers are investigating new ways to extract meaningful information using scalable super computers.
GPGPUs allow researchers to work with far more complex and realistic models than has previously been possible, speeding up the calculation of many existing computationally intensive problems.
Dr Eugene Ch'ng, associate professor and deputy director of the International Doctoral Innovation Centre (IDIC) at the University, has teamed up with research colleagues and PhD students to spearhead the development of big data processing capabilities within the School of Computer Science and the IDIC.
He says: “In the age of big data, we are inundated by large volumes of digital information from the internet, social media and machine-generated information. This data arrives in real-time and our challenge as academics is to develop and apply methods to transform it into valuable and insightful information.
“In order to push beyond our existing research boundaries, the use of high-performance hardware such as GPGPUs has become indispensable. The ever-expanding computational capabilities of such specialist parallel hardware is creating a wealth of new opportunities in the sciences and we at UNNC endeavour to be part of this paradigm.
“NVIDIA has been instrumental in supporting researchers and the quality of their hardware remains first choice. We are delighted to have received such a valuable and modern hardware donation, which will benefit faculty and PhD students enormously.”
Dr Eric Scheffel, assistant professor in quantitative methods and economics, is currently undertaking research into macroeconomic theory employing computable, large-scale heterogeneous-agent economic models.
He says: “We are now beginning to observe a more widespread use of computer-assisted numerical methods in our discipline. Leading manufacturers such as NVIDIA have positively disrupted scientific communities by making supercomputing available affordably.
“At the same time it has become common knowledge that many of the more cutting-edge models we develop in economics or finance can no longer be solved using analytical tools alone, instead we increasingly have to turn to simulation methods made possible by the computer.”
NVIDIA’s visit came about through the School of Computer Science’s involvement in the ASE Big Data Science Conference at Tsinghua University. In addition to the donation of the GPUs, Professor Simon See from NVIDIA Asia Pacific and China will also co-supervise IDIC PhD students over the next few years. He will also visit UNNC to start an institutional-industrial collaboration between researchers in Singapore, Malaysia and China into smart city research.
For more information on the project contact Dr Eugene Ch’ng.
More press information about UNNC is available from Tess Humphrys, communications and marketing officer, UNNC, on +86 574 8818 0940.
Photo from left to right shows: David Yuan, Sales Director, NVIDIA China; Dr Eugene Ch’ng, deputy director, IDIC; Professor Simon See, Director and Chief Solution Architect, HPC Shanghai Jiao Tong University, NVIDIA Asia Pacific; Dr. Eric Scheffel, assistant professor, NUBS China; Leio Wang, Sales Manager, AMAX China; Jeff Lai, Sales Director, AMAX China.