“Small countries cannot rely on small science,” say backers of a new initiative linking high-powered supercomputers throughout the country. The National eScience Infrastructure (NeSI) will be launched this week at an event in Auckland. The Infrastructure is a distributed network of efficient, coordinated and accessible computing resources – representing superior computing power for New Zealand scientists.
The collaborative efforts of NeSI connect high-performance computers, data storage and resources for New Zealand research. It is supported by the Universities of Auckland, Canterbury and Otago, and Crown research institutes NIWA, AgResearch and Landcare Research.
NIWA chief scientist Dr Murray Poulter says:
“The aim is to enhance the high performance computing applications of the wider New Zealand research community. NIWA already has its supercomputer in place and NeSI will provide linked infrastructure so that other research institutions can use some of that power to work on problems outside of NIWA. We will provide help to scientists using the machines available on the linked infrastructure” .
For more information you can read the press release from the Ministry of Science and Innovation here.
The Science Media Centre held a briefing for journalists featuring experts involved in the development of NeSI, ahead of its official launch on Friday 23rd June 2011.
Panelists:
- Mr Nick Jones – Acting Director, NeSI; Co-Director eResearch, Centre for eResearch, University of Auckland.
- Prof Tim David– Director, BlueFern Supercomputing Unit, University of Canterbury
- Prof Mark Gahegan, Director of eResearch, Centre for eResearch, University of Auckland
LISTEN TO AUDIO
Registered journalists can download presenters’ slides from the SMC Resource Library.