UNM awarded prestigious grant to lead national research on high-performance computing

By Mariah Rosales

A collaborative team of universities, spearheaded by the Center for Advanced Research Computing (CARC) at the University of New Mexico, has been awarded one of nine cooperative agreements under the Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program IV (PSAAP IV) by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

Along with UNM, partnering institutions include the University of Alabama, Tennessee Technological University, and the University of California at Davis.

Together they will establish the Center for Optimized Modern Parallel Adaptable System Software (COMPASS), which will be based within the CARC Department at UNM. COMPASS builds on the successes of UNM’s previous PSAAP III center — the Center for Understandable, Performant Exascale Communication Systems (CUP-ECS) — and will focus on developing scalable, uncertainty-aware system software to enable predictive modeling at scale.

This research is vital because advances in high-performance computing impact fields that touch everyday life — from weather forecasting and climate modeling to medical research, national security, and the development of new technologies. By creating more efficient and adaptable computing systems, COMPASS aims to make scientific discoveries faster and more reliable.

COMPASS will be led by UNM Computer Science Professor Patrick Bridges as Principal Investigator, along with co-PIs:

• Amanda Bienz — University of New Mexico
• Trilce Estrada — University of New Mexico
• Purushotham Bangalore — University of Alabama
• Anthony Skjellum — Tennessee Technological University
• Steve Shkoller — University of California at Davis

This research team combines complementary expertise in scalable software systems, communication technologies, and simulation science to advance predictive science and train the next generation of computational scientists. “COMPASS seeks to use AI insights to transform how scientific applications and system software work together to leverage high-performance computing systems and address important scientific problems. We are excited to continue to move this research forward and look forward to the close collaboration with our national lab colleagues that is fundamental to the NNSA PSAAP program,” said Bridges.

PSAAP is managed by NNSA’s Office of Advanced Simulation and Computing and Institutional Research and Development Programs in collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. The program engages the U.S. academic community in advancing predictive science through high-performance computing and ensures U.S. leadership in simulation-based research.

For more information, visit psaap.llnl.gov or the DOE NNSA PSAAP IV announcement.