Musings of a Computer Scientist

A $300,000 gift by Paul Maritz, Chief Executive Officer of Pivotal (an EMC-backed startup), is providing the critical resources needed to launch BU’s Cloud Computing Initiative (CCI), which is incubated at the Hariri Institute for Computing. In a recent visit to the Institute, Paul met with key faculty members involved in CS and CCI projects focusing on novel cloud platforms for high-performance computing, big data, and cyber security. The discussions that ensued helped distill three thrusts required to create “An Advanced Platform for Data Science” at Boston University, which he is generously funding by this gift. Paul’s support is quite important, not only for its financial implications, but also because the imprimatur of his name will open doors and convey recognition of CCI and Institute projects.

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On July 10, 2013, The Council on Competitiveness, in conjunction with the U.S. House of Representatives Science and National Labs Caucus, held a briefing titled Extreme Computing: Why United States Industry, National Labs, and Academia Need Advanced Computing.

As one of four speakers, I was invited to participate in this briefing, representing Boston University and academe in general. In my prepared remarks and in follow-up discussions with congressional staff I shared insights on the Massachusetts Green High Performance Center (MGHPCC) and the opportunities that “HPC in the cloud” could offer to society and the importance of securing and hardening our cloud computing infrastructure. The basic tenet of my remarks were that it is about time that HPC and super-computing in general be accessible "to the rest of us" -- as opposed to remaining hostage to the scientific computing community of the last century! Speaking of which, is there really a field of science that is not computational? It's about time we break the mold and make HPC accessible to the myriads of HPC applications that are not being served because they are not serving the "gatekeepers" of scientific computing.

In a thank you note to Boston University, The Council noted that members of the congressional staff and guests were“thrilled to learn of this historic collaboration among the five MGHPCC universities, state government and private industry and its partnership with K-12 public schools and community colleges on new educational and workforce development initiatives.”