Since 1987 – Covering the Fastest Computers in the World and the People Who Run Them
Since 1987 – Covering the Fastest Computers in the World and the People Who Run Them
July 22, 2024
July 22, 2024 — The University of California Board of Regents has approved the creation of the new School of Computing, Information and Data Sciences (SCIDS) at UC San Diego, a critical advance in UC San Diego’s long history of leading innovation and education in artificial intelligence, computing and data science – disciplines that are rapidly reshaping modern life.
One of 12 schools at UC San Diego – and just the fourth to be added in the 21st century – SCIDS will bring together faculty across disciplines to improve the human condition by better understanding how data shapes society, and to prepare the next generation of highly skilled workers driving artificial intelligence advancements.
“The School of Computing, Information and Data Sciences exemplifies UC San Diego’s commitment to addressing one of the most compelling needs of modern times – transforming data into actionable knowledge,” said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “Computing and data literacy are key to meeting the needs of students and the state of California, advancing critical research areas like the future of artificial intelligence, and bolstering the university’s mission of public service.”
SCIDS will be enlivened by an anticipated 8,000 students, including many who will come through a robust community college pipeline; and more than 50 faculty across 16 academic disciplines.
The school will play a key role in advancing data science across all disciplines, as well as advancing state-of-the-art computing applications. Additionally, it will serve as a catalyst for increasing collaborations across existing schools, academic departments and disciplines to establish new fields of inquiry.
By translating data science from the classroom to research and the broader workplace, the school will prepare students for their careers by providing opportunities for them to engage directly with industry and government partners, including emergency responders; municipal, state and national resource management organizations; and nonprofits. Students will learn first-hand how data science can allow organizations to better address societal problems ranging from climate change mitigation and social justice issues, to technical challenges and healthcare.
“Pursuing cross-collaborative research opportunities and creating interdisciplinary educational programs are integral parts of the UC San Diego community,” said Executive Vice Chancellor Elizabeth H. Simmons. “The School of Computing, Information and Data Sciences is just the latest example of our commitment to working across disciplines to expand knowledge in a burgeoning field and improve our community and our world. It fits perfectly within our educational structure.”
Foundational Pillars of the New School
The new school combines the strengths of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), a national leader in high-performance and data-intensive computing, and the Halicioğlu Data Science Institute (HDSI), a pioneering interdisciplinary institute that advances data science and AI education and research.
Together these resources form the foundational pillars of SCIDS and will position UC San Diego to support the growing demand for data science and computing expertise across the research and educational mission of the university.
As part of a national effort to address a shortage of advanced computing resources, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) established the General Atomics-affiliated SDSC in the 1980s, which transformed academic scientific communities like UC San Diego.
In its 40-year history, SDSC has provided computing resources to a range of domestic stakeholders and federal agencies, state agencies tackling crises like extreme weather and wildfire, and the UC San Diego and the UC system, providing researchers with in-house computational and data resources to accelerate scientific discovery.
“The new school at UC San Diego will grow our impact on society via translational computing, information and data sciences, and bring AI education to community and teaching colleges across California and the nation via our AI infrastructure,” said SDSC Director Frank Würthwein, a founding faculty member of HDSI. “Combining our strengths with those of HDSI optimizes our leadership in innovation for science, technology, education and society.”
UC San Diego’s depth in technology-related domains, anchored by engineering and mathematics, deepened further when the university established HDSI in 2018 with philanthropic support from Computer Science and Engineering Alumnus Taner Halicioğlu.
Educating the next generation of machine learning engineers and data analysts, HDSI brings together an interdisciplinary team of faculty and researchers from areas ranging from computer science to communications to medicine. Working together, these researchers explore new computational methods, new mathematical models and guide societal and ethical impacts of data science.
HDSI, for example, is home to the NSF-funded AI Institute for Learning-Enabled Optimization at Scale (TILOS), which explores AI optimization and advances chip design, networks and contextual robotics.
“HDSI and SDSC share the unique challenge of building transdisciplinary academics and research. Their coming together under SCIDS will involve new synergies and realize tremendous new possibilities in creating talent in emerging areas, including artificial intelligence,” said HDSI Director Rajesh Gupta.
UC San Diego’s undergraduate major in data science was first developed and shepherded in 2016 by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering before the degree program’s transfer to HDSI. HDSI graduated its first class of bachelor’s students in 2020, and initiated masters and doctorate programs in 2022. HDSI also offers a minor in data science, with a growing population of students, and it is in the process of launching a joint M.S.-M.D. program with health sciences. Currently, there are 51 faculty appointments in HDSI. Student graduates include 814 bachelor’s students between 2020 and 2024, and 22 master’s students between 2022 and 2024. One Ph.D. student graduated in 2024.
Source: UC San Diego
More Off The Wire
Be the most informed person in the room! Stay ahead of the tech trends with industry updates delivered to you every week!
October 15, 2024
Advanced Micro Devices has detailed two new GPUs that unambiguously reinforce it as the only legitimate GPU alternative to Nvidia. AMD shared new facts on its next-generation GPU MI355X, based on CDNA4 architecture. The Read more…
October 14, 2024
A “moat” is a common term associated with Nvidia and its proprietary products that lock customers into their hardware and software. Another moat breakdown should have them concerned. The U.S. Department of Justice is Read more…
October 14, 2024
One of the most difficult problems with quantum computing relates to increasing the size of the quantum computer. Researchers globally are seeking to solve this “challenge of scale.” To bring quantum scaling closer Read more…
October 14, 2024
I’ve been through a number of briefings from different vendors from IBM to HP, and there is one constant: they are all leaning heavily on Nvidia for their AI services strategy. That may be a best practice, but Nvidia d Read more…
October 14, 2024
Zapata Computing, which was founded in 2017 as a Harvard spinout specializing in quantum software and later pivoted to an AI focus, is ceasing operations, according to an SEC filing last week. Zapata had gone public one Read more…
October 10, 2024
AMD today announced several new chips including its newest Instinct GPU — the MI325X — as it chases Nvidia. Other new devices announced at the company event in San Francisco included the 5th Gen AMD EPYC processors, Read more…
October 15, 2024
Advanced Micro Devices has detailed two new GPUs that unambiguously reinforce it as the only legitimate GPU alternative to Nvidia. AMD shared new facts on its n Read more…
October 14, 2024
I’ve been through a number of briefings from different vendors from IBM to HP, and there is one constant: they are all leaning heavily on Nvidia for their AI Read more…
October 9, 2024
The National Science Foundation has granted $107,600 to English professors at US universities to unearth the mysteries of the Aurora supercomputer. The two-year Read more…
October 9, 2024
There’s no single best way to respond to the explosion of data and AI. Sometimes you need to bring everything into your own unified platform. Other times, you Read more…
October 9, 2024
A Google-led team of researchers has presented more evidence that it’s possible to run productive circuits on today’s near-term intermediate scale quantum d Read more…
October 8, 2024
Foxconn is celebrating its 50th birthday this year. It started by making connectors, then moved to systems, and now, a supercomputer. The company announced it w Read more…
October 3, 2024
MLCommons is known for its independent Machine Learning (ML) benchmarks. These benchmarks have focused on mathematical ML operations and accelerators (e.g., Nvi Read more…
October 3, 2024
DataPelago this week emerged from stealth with a new virtualization layer that it says will allow users to move AI, data analytics, and ETL workloads to whateve Read more…
September 17, 2024
Intel’s Falcon Shores future looks bleak as it concedes AI training to GPU rivals On Monday, Intel sent a letter to employees detailing its comeback plan after Read more…
September 25, 2024
Waiting is the hardest part. In the fall of 2023, HPCwire wrote about the new diverging Xeon processor strategy from Intel. Instead of a on-size-fits all approa Read more…
September 23, 2024
Ansys Fluent® is well-known in the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) space and is praised for its versatility as a general-purpose solver. Its impr Read more…
June 3, 2024
In the world of AI, there’s a desperate search for an alternative to Nvidia’s GPUs, and AMD is stepping up to the plate. AMD detailed its updated GPU roadmap, w Read more…
June 30, 2024
Nvidia is saying that companies could make $5 to $7 for every $1 invested in GPUs over a four-year period. Customers are investing billions in new Nvidia hardwa Read more…
September 4, 2024
Nvidia is putting its GH200 chips in European supercomputers, and researchers are getting their hands on those systems and releasing research papers with perfor Read more…
June 10, 2024
Nvidia had an explosive 2023 in data-center GPU shipments, which totaled roughly 3.76 million units, according to a study conducted by semiconductor analyst fir Read more…
October 30, 2023
With long lead times for the NVIDIA H100 and A100 GPUs, many organizations are looking at the new NVIDIA L40S GPU, which it’s a new GPU optimized for AI and g Read more…
September 26, 2024
Benchmarking is an important topic in quantum computing. There’s consensus it’s needed but opinions vary widely on how to go about it. Last week, IBM introd Read more…
September 25, 2024
Intel is now customizing its latest Xeon 6 server chips for use with Nvidia’s GPUs that dominate the AI landscape. The chipmaker’s new Xeon 6 chips, also called Read more…
September 18, 2024
Rapid advancements in quantum computing are bringing a new era of technological possibilities. However, as quantum technology progresses, there are growing conc Read more…
September 5, 2024
Elon Musk’s xAI cluster, named Colossus (possibly after the 1970 movie about a massive computer that does not end well), has been brought online. Musk recently Read more…
July 2, 2024
IonQ, the trapped ion quantum computing specialist, delivered a progress report last week firming up 2024/25 product goals and reviewing its technology roadmap. Read more…
September 18, 2024
The rapid evolution of large language models (LLMs) has fueled significant advancement in AI, enabling these systems to analyze text, generate summaries, sugges Read more…
September 13, 2024
Microsoft and Quantinuum reported the ability to create 12 logical qubits on Quantinuum’s H2 trapped ion system this week and also reported using two logical qu Read more…
September 27, 2024
Yesterday the Commerce Department announced export controls on quantum computing technologies as well as new controls for advanced semiconductors and additive Read more…
© 2024 HPCwire. All Rights Reserved. A Tabor Communications Publication
HPCwire is a registered trademark of Tabor Communications, Inc. Use of this site is governed by our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Tabor Communications, Inc. is prohibited.
