Grants give WV researchers access to supercomputers

Marshall University, West Virginia University and West Virginia State University will receive the grants from the National Science Foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research in West Virginia.

The first grant for $2.6 million will allow the schools to begin using supercomputers to help them delve further into research questions.

The second part of the grant for $1.8 million will extend biometric research and help develop new technologies in the medical field.

EPSCOR Director Paul Hill says the grant will allow the universities access to a supercomputer with the University of Arkansas.

“What the national grid does of the supercomputers, it allows people on a campus in Arkansas or California to be a direct collaborator with a professor at WVU, Marshall or West Virginia State,” Hill said.

John Maher, executive director of the Marshall University Research Corporation, says this is another step in helping Marshall University grow and become competitive nationally in research.

“Having access to the NSF research infrastructure fund really helps us continue that momentum so we can build the research capability of the university,” Maher said.

Maher says working with other universities is the key to research.

“On a pragmatic level, we’re able to spread the infrastructure over two universities and spread the support and the maintenance,” he said.

“In terms of the intellectual portion of it, interacting with other scientists from other institutions with their prospective is what it’s really all about,” Maher said.