Government Market News StaffThe University of Alabama is set to begin construction of a new High Performance Computing and Data Center (HPC) following final approval from administrators. The facility will house the fastest supercomputer in Alabama and be comparable to systems at peer research institutions.
The HPC is planned as a petascale computing system, capable of executing quadrillions of calculations per second. The 40,000-square-foot facility will significantly improve UA’s computing capabilities, enabling researchers to secure and lead both government and private-industry grants and contracts.
The center will support all campuses in the University of Alabama System, promoting collaboration with external partners by providing shared infrastructure for research initiatives and workforce development.
The HPC will aid the university in developing partnerships with industry, government, and academia to advance discoveries in fields including water, materials, transportation, health, national security and quantum computing.
A grant provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is providing most of the $25 million project cost, supplemented by an allocation from the state’s Education Trust Fund, which was created in 2023.
A timeline for construction has not been announced, but the university expects the facility to be finished in 2026.
Photo courtesy Kai NeSmith, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
