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Tribhuvan University established supercomputer

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KATHMANDU: JAN. 27 – At Tribhuvan University, a supercomputer has been installed. The institution was able to ‘install’ the supercomputer on January 23 after an eight-month struggle, said Dr Madhav Prasad Ghimire.

Ghimire also stated that the supercomputer’s operation will result in a significant and positive change in performance towards scientific computations. Dr Rajendra Prasad Adhikari (Department of Physics, Kathmandu University), an expert on supercomputers, was responsible in the design and development of supercomputers at TU. The supercomputer is hosted in the supercomputer room of the Information Technology and Innovation Center, Tribhuvan University at Kirtipur, and is operated by Dr Ghimire from his office.

The university received the equipment in two months. According to Dr Ghimire, the in-house building of supercomputers is national pride, as it meets all international standards and features.

*Dr. Madhav Prasad Ghimire in his office at CDP, TU*

With the initiation from Dr Ghimire (Tribhuvan University) and the processing from PD Dr Manuel Richter (IFW-Dresden), a mutual agreement was setup between Tribhuvan University and IFW-Dresden. This is followed by the signing of an equipment loan agreement on 13th May 2021 between the two parties where Prof. Dr Binil Aryal, Dean, Institute of Science and Technology represents Tribhuvan University and Prof. Dr Bernd Buchner (Scientific Director) and Juliane Schmidt (Commercial Director) represents IFW-Dresden. This agreement paved the way to establish a supercomputer at Tribhuvan University. Following this, the equipment was received in two-month in the university.

Tribhuvan University is the second institution in Nepal to operate a supercomputer. Earlier, Kathmandu University has brought the supercomputer into operation.

*Workstation with GPU node received as start-up grant from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Germany and Tribhuvan University*

What is the supercomputer operated by TU?

A typical computer processes and analyzes data in a systematic way. But a supercomputer is a system made up of a complex combination of hardware and software usage policies. Such a computer system has the ability to be used by hundreds of CPUs, a lot of memory and multiple users. Supercomputers can modify, store, and analyze data in parallel. Another feature of the supercomputer is its ability to run day and night.

The supercomputer currently operated at TU has 240 CPUs, 3 terabytes of memory and 30 terabytes of storage. The supercomputer can be operated remotely. Although the cost of operating the computer may be up to 17 million NRs, IFW-Dresden has provided the equipment free of charge under the equipment loan agreement for scientific purposes.

He stated that one can use the supercomputer in computing the scientific problems related to materials science, pharmaceutical design, seismic risk and loss assessment, stock market fluctuations, infectious disease studies, climate and climate change, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Similarly, a person working in TU can login and work from any corner of the world with the help of the internet if required. For this, TU will create a profile for each user and provide a password, he added. This saves time and allows many people to use the same computer program and system at the same time.