Just in time for fall, the University of Virginia has added super-powerful computing capabilities to help faculty, students and staff perform, among other things, artificial intelligence and machine-learning research.  

Joshua Baller, associate vice president for research computing, said of the new NVIDIA DGX BasePOD, “This rare computing capability is a powerful resource that will help attract and retain top-tier researchers, including those doing work on medical research, the UVA Grand Challenges and other projects that may involve AI, including machine learning. UVA is one of a select few universities in the nation to offer computing capability at this level.”  

The machine-learning process involves massive amounts of information paired with enormous processing power. The BasePOD performs what is known as “parallel processing,” the act of executing complex computations and data processing tasks simultaneously.

“This is enabled by a specialized network that allows the individual components of the BasePOD to pass information back and forth with particular efficiency,” Baller said.

The BasePOD has been integrated with Rivanna, UVA’s High-Performance Computing system, which is located at the University Data Center and operated by UVA Information Technology Services.  

For information about using the resource, visit Research Computing.