MGHPCC membership advances Yale’s research infrastructure

After several years of careful consideration and strategic planning, formal agreements to add Yale as a member of the Massachusetts Green High-Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC) were completed this Spring. Yale joins Boston University, Harvard University, MIT, Northeastern University, and the University of Massachusetts as equal partners in the MGHPCC consortium.

This not-for-profit, state-of-the-art data center is dedicated to supporting computationally intensive research, and Yale’s inclusion in this consortium marks a milestone in our research infrastructure development. Members collaborate on research, pool knowledge, reduce redundancies in research computing operations, and benefit from a more sustainable source of energy for research computing infrastructure. This joint venture provides a gateway to addressing challenges in computing at a scale that are too great for one academic institution to tackle alone.

Yale recognized the need for infrastructure expansion and enhanced computation capabilities following the release of several Yale reports outlining recommendations for elevating cross-disciplinary work and producing an outsized impact on the world, including the University Science Strategy Committee Report, University-Wide Committee on Data-Intensive Social Science Committee Report, and SEAS Strategic Vision Final Report. Following the release of these reports, several centers and initiatives, such as Yale Biomedical Informatics & Computing (YBIC), were established. According to the Director of the MGHPCC Transition, Kiran Keshav, “Central to each of those centers and initiatives is a need for advanced computing and data processing.”

Yale evaluated various options to support these needs, including expanding internal resources, leveraging cloud-based technologies, and joining a regional consortium such as MGHPCC. Ultimately, the MGHPCC was the best choice because “it provides the opportunity to join our peers who are grappling with similar issues and opens the door for future collaborative partnerships on grants,” according to Keshav.

Yale’s transition into the MGHPCC began with the design of the space within the facility and the network connectivity in the summer/fall of 2023 to support the processing and storage of regulated and non-regulated data. Then, over the winter/spring of 2024, the data center space and network were built, enabling reliable, secure, and high-speed networking between the facility and Yale’s campus. In parallel to the design and build, the legal groundwork was laid to add Yale as an equal member.

This critical endeavor includes teams across cross-functional units such as the Office of General Counsel, Procurement, Information Technology Services (including the Information Security Office), and Yale Center for Research Computing.

Planning is underway for the full transition of Yale’s HPC equipment from Yale’s West Campus to the MGHPCC in the years ahead. Visit the Yale Center for Research Computing website or the MGHPCC website for the latest updates.