Campus Technology Magazine has selected Purdue’s DiaGrid for one of its 2009 Campus Technology Innovators Awards.

Purdue’s partners in DiaGrid include Indiana University, Indiana State University, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Louisville, the University of Wisconsin, Purdue’s Calumet and North Central campuses, and Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Purdue's DiaGrid team includes, from left, Andy Howard, Phil Cheeseman, John Campbell, David Braun, Preston Smith and Carol Song. The team is posing with images from the scientific research enabled by DiaGrid, projected in a multiwalled virtual environment at ITaP's visualization facility. (Purdue University photo/Andrew Hancock)

The annual awards, highlighted in the magazine’s August issue, recognize higher education institutions for groundbreaking initiatives in educational technology that are models for other schools. Campus Technology is a leading monthly publication produced by 1105 Media Education Group to deliver news and real-world examples of how technology is used to advance the way colleges and universities operate and educate.

Purdue was one of 11 award winners selected from 349 nominations from higher education institutions around the globe. The winners also are highlighted on CampusTechnology.com.

“We are delighted to present Purdue with a 2009 Campus Technology Innovators Award,” said Geoffrey Fletcher, editorial director of Campus Technology. “DiaGrid provides millions of hours of computation that would otherwise be wasted, without the need for additional technology or facilities purchases. The sheer size and ingenuity of the initiative, as well as the diversity of computing resources represented in the grid, really set the project apart.”

At its heart, DiaGrid is a working example from the hot field of network-centered “cloud” computing services.

“As cloud computing becomes the new standard, Purdue has positioned itself as an ongoing leader in this technology, especially for scientific research and educational purposes,” said Gerry McCartney, Purdue vice president for information technology and chief information officer.

Operated by ITaP, Purdue’s central information technology organization, DiaGrid started as an on-campus system. But the system now includes nearly 27,000 processors at Purdue and the partner campuses. Purdue has an ongoing effort to add partners, with a goal of incorporating 100,000 processors.

“We continue to explore new applications and are seeking additional institutions to join the project,” said John Campbell, associate vice president in charge of research computing for ITaP. “DiaGrid allows institutions to maximize their technology investments while supporting the diverse needs of faculty.”

Researchers at Purdue and elsewhere use DiaGrid for purposes such as imaging the structure of viruses at near-atomic resolutions, the better to develop new ways of battling viral illnesses ranging from swine flu and the common cold to West Nile virus and AIDS.

The distributed computing pool also has been used to understand the solar system’s formation, project the reliability of Indiana’s electrical supply and model the spread of water pollutants to develop best practices for ensuring water quality and availability, among other things.

DiaGrid works by pooling computers over the Purdue campus network and off campus via the Internet and fast research networks. Whenever computers in the pool are idle – at night, or when their users are at lunch, for example – the system sends work to them. When users need their computers, jobs in progress automatically get shifted to other idle machines in the pool. The variety of hardware in DiaGrid includes computers in student computer labs, offices, server rooms and supercomputing clusters. It also is the first multicampus collaboration of its kind.

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Karen Iler Kirk, professor of speech, language and hearing sciences, is leading the study. Participants will participate in four sessions, with each session lasting 60-90 minutes. Hearing and vision screenings will be completed during the first visit. Those who pass the screenings will be asked to identify voices while listening to sentences spoken by several different talkers.

People interested in participating must be ages 18-65, have no reported speech or hearing difficulties, have normal or corrected-to-normal vision, and be a native speaker of general American English. Compensation is $40 upon completion of four sessions.

To participate, or for more information on the study, contact Vidya Krull, a research assistant, at vganesh@purdue.edu .

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Speech and hearing study looking for subjects

Men from ages 18 to 40 who are involved in an intimate relationship (married or living together) and who have opinions about the relationship and handling conflict are needed for the Purdue Attitudes and Relationships Project.

The confidential one-hour study involves completing questionnaires and a computerized word-sorting task. Participants will earn $15 for the project.

Call 765-494-5119 anytime to learn more about the project.

The principal investigator is Chris Eckhardt, associate professor of psychological sciences.

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