Background

The Center for Advanced Computing (CAC) is a department in the College of Engineering. It was established in 2001 by combining the Center for Parallel Computing (CPC) and the Laboratory for Scientific Computing (LaSC). The Center for Parallel Computing was established in 1992 to operate a parallel computing facility. LaSC was established in 1986 to provide expert consultation and assistance in scientific computing to University of Michigan faculty, staff,and students. LaSC also administered the Doctoral Program in Scientific Computing. The initial portfolio of CAC's activities was the combined activities and responsibilities of CPC and LaSC.

A significant amount of support for CAC was provided by an NSF infrastructure grant called NPACI. When that grant ended in 2004, the College of Engineering provided funding for CAC to continue as a College of Engineering activity. The CAC, in with additional support from CAEN and the College of Information's Office of Information Technology, currently supports computing cluster andother related facilities for researchers in the College of Engineering.

The operations of the high-performance computing environment is part of CAEN; the Center for Advanced Computing supports faculty and research in the College of Engineering and administers the Rackham degree program in Scientific Computing.

The CAEN High Performance Computing Group operates the campus research computing cluster called Flux. 

Staff

Dr. Ken Powell is a Arthur F Thurnau Professor, Professor of Aerospace Engineering and the Director of the Center for Advanced Computing. Dr. Powell focuses on the academic mission of the CAC and on helping other researchers, especially those new to the College of Engineering, determine the most appropriate hardware for their needs. For more on Dr. Powell see here.

Andrew Caird is the Director of High Performance Computing for the College of Engineering. Andrew focuses on the operational aspects of the Center for Advanced Computing, addressing user support, hardware, software, and facilities issues. Andrew graduated from U-M with a B.S. and M.S. in Nuclear Engineering and began his career as a student employee and then a regular employee of the Center for Parallel Computing from 1992-1996, then returned to the CAC in 2004.

Matthew Britt is a Senior High Performance Computing Systems Administrator. Matthew focuses on the systems level details of supporting over 1000 computers, three different operating systems, and scheduling over 4,000 jobs on them per day subject to a dozens of policy constraints. He also advances the technology the CAC uses to provide a stable platform to over 350 users. Matthew graduated from U-M with a B.S. in Computer Science and began his career as a student employee and then a regular employee at the Center for Parallel Computing in 1996.

Brock Palen is a High Performance Computing Systems Administrator. Brock focuses on applications support, end-user consulting, delivering workshops, and supporting our high-speed storage system. He also spends time on overall system efficiency issues, resource management with respect to hardware, software, and storage, and data analysis. Brock graduated from U-M with a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering and began his career as a student employee and then a regular employee at the Center for Advanced Computing in 2003.

Reed Hoyer is a High Performance Computing Systems Administrator.  Reed focuses on support of the HPC network and storage fabric as well as some support of the compute and co-processor hardware in Nyx.  He spends a lot of time ensuring the users of the CAC resources have a smooth experience, good documentation, and a stable and predictable environment.  Reed graduated from U-M with a B.S. in Computer Science and has worked at CAEN both as a student and full-time employee, joining the CAC in 2010.

Contact Us

The best way to contact us with technical, operational, or policy questions is via email to cac-support@umich.edu.

Questions about the academic program should be directed to cac-info@umich.edu.