Research Profiles

Below are brief research being actively conducted on the HPC cluster by CofC faculty and their students

These are active projects utilizing the HPC cluster. If you would like yours to be added or changed, please email [e-mail].

Allan Strand

(Marine Biology ) http://linum.cofc.edu

Prof. Strand is an evolutionary biologist using advanced statistical methods to study how populations and genes change over time. The gene sequence data takes a lot of storage and analyzing the data requires a lot of processing power. Therefore, his workload is ideal for HPC clusters and he is already utilizing Open Science Grid (OSF) to run his simulations. In addition, he has an NSF grant to develop software for doing the kinds of population genetics on HPC environments.

P. Chris Fragile

(Physics and Astronomy) http://fragilep.people.cofc.edu/

Prof. Fragile is a computational astrophysicist studying the formation of black holes and how different particles flow near them. The necessary simulations are so demanding that even the world’s fastest computers can run them to fully. Prof. Fragile develops a computer code called Cosmos to make these simulations faster and more tractable. He uses local HPC resources to run test simulations and train students about software development before performing the most demanding simulations at some of the world’s most powerful HPCs at different government labs. Some of his efforts have been profiled here: https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/cosmos-code-helps-probe-space-oddities

Erik Sokta

(Marine Biology ) - http://sotkae.people.cofc.edu

Prof. Sotka is a marine biologist studying the population genetics and conservation of marine species. Among his many projects, one is a collaboration with Prof. Allan Strand examining the genetic history of an important oyster parasite called MSX. These genetic simulations are both time and resource intensive, therefore they are perfectly suited to run on our HPC cluster.

Anthony Bishara

(Psychology) - https://blogs.cofc.edu/bisharaa/ Dr. Bishara uses statistical tools to assess the validity of assumptions that scientists in psychology and beyond in deriving conclusions from their data. The certainty with which he can make these assessments depends on the size of the data he can analyze. Therefore, being able to use an HPC system with large storage, memory and processing power will enable and catalyze his research. He is already using the current campus cluster to run some of his analysis code.

Kristin Krantzman

(Chemistry and Biochemistry) - http://krantzmank.people.cofc.edu/ Prof. Krantzman is a computational chemist simulating the bombardment of solid surfaces with different projectiles including the C60 buckyball, and reactions that occur at the interface between gases and solids. The molecular dynamics simulations needed to understand these collision/fragmentation phenomenon are computationally intensive and they invariably require HPC clusters to run. She uses GPU-accelerated codes to run large and long simulations that would have been unthinkable just a decade ago.

Garrett Mitchener

(Math) - http://mitchenerg.people.cofc.edu Prof. Mitchener is an applied mathematician who develops models that are applied to linguistics and biology. He programs in Haskell and optimizes his code to run efficiently on an HPC cluster like ours.

Gabriel Williams

(Physics and Astronomy) - http://williamsgj.people.cofc.edu Prof. Williams is an atmospheric physicist studying the formation, intensification and weakening of tropical cyclones like hurricanes and typhoons. He analyzes data collected by weather aircrafts and runs fluid dynamics simulations to get a better understanding of tropical cyclones. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is one of the most common problems employed on HPC clusters due to its computational demands. Dr. Williams is profiled here: http://today.cofc.edu/2016/03/12/gabe-williams/

Ana Uribe

(Physics and Astronomy) -

Prof. Ana Uribe studies the evolution of planetary system by simulating how newly forming planets interact with their parent star. Her group calculates the rate of migration of a nascent planet toward its parent star and how that rate varies depending on the gas density and the nature of the surrounding material. HPC can enable and accelerate more of Prof. Uribe's research.

Scott Harris

(Geology) - http://geology.cofc.edu/about/faculty-and-staff/harris-scott.php

Mosha Rhodes

(Biology) - http://marinebiology.cofc.edu/about-the-program/faculty-listing/rhodes-moshe-e..php

Prof. Rhodes research group uses bioinformatics software to perform microbiome analysis on raw DNA sequencing data.

Makesh Kumar

(Math) - http://kumarm.people.cofc.edu/

Xenia Mountrouidou

(Computer Science) - https://blogs.cofc.edu/mountrouidoux/

Prof. Mountrouidou uses powerful computers to analyze the network security of IoT devices

Richard Lavrich

(Chem & Biochem) - http://chemistry.cofc.edu/about/faculty-staff-listing/lavrich-richard.php

Prof. Lavrich uses WebMO to run computational chemistry calculations supplementing his spectroscopic work.

Clyde Metz

(Chem & Biochem) http://metzc.people.cofc.edu/ Prof. Metz uses WebMO to run computational chemistry calculations for both his research collaborations and undergraduate computational chemistry course.

Gamil Guirgis

(Chem & Biochem) - http://chemistry.cofc.edu/about/faculty-staff-listing/guirgis-gamil.php

Prof. Guirgis uses WebMO to run computational chemistry calculations supplementing his experimental research.

Jason Overby

(Chem & Biochem) - http://overbyj.people.cofc.edu/

Frederick J. Heldrich

(Chem & Biochem) - http://chemistry.cofc.edu/about/faculty-staff-listing/heldrich-rick.php