NUS_IT_ReportCard2024(DPRT)

Contents

CITO’s Foreword 1

“Hopper” HPC-AI System Rollout + Green “Vanda” A Sustainable System 2

HPConDemand 3

New Cloud Contract AWS & Google 4

Research Data Management Scholar Bank 5

CITO’s Foreword

1

Perfect Harmony Hitting the High Notes in

We have curated these pages from our Annual Report specially for our research colleagues, highlighting our solutions that support their efforts in positioning NUS as a global leader in research and innovation. This year, we deployed the “Hopper” and “Vanda” High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems . “Hopper” enhances computing performance by 400% and supports numerous impactful scientific projects like Graph Neural Networks and weather pattern prediction. “Vanda,” developed with the Sustainable Tropical Data Centre Testbed (STDCT), focuses on sustainability with advanced cooling technologies, aligning with NUS’s environmental goals. As part of our strategic growth, we have expanded compute capacity to the cloud with bulk contracts from AWS and Google , forming a robust hybrid environment that combines on-premise reliability with cloud scalability. Ongoing negotiations with other cloud vendors aim to diversify options. We have also revamped our web portal to enhance the onboarding experience for new HPC users. ScholarBank@NUS , a centralised repository for scholarly outputs, including unpublished literature, boosts online visibility and fosters research collaboration for our 4,000 research staff and 1,600 faculty members, with full implementation anticipated by end 2024. Looking forward, we will establish a Community of Practice with researchers to share insights, address evolving needs, and provide targeted

support, empowering them to drive discovery and innovation. My team and I are proud to contribute to the meaningful efforts of our research colleagues. This is made possible by the unwavering support of senior management, including Prof. Liu Bin, and the dedication of colleagues from the research cluster. We look forward to a closer partnership to achieve even more for NUS in 2025! Shui-Min Chief IT Officer (CITO)

2

NUS IT Report Card 2024 Hitting the High Notes in Perfect Harmony

This year, two notable High Performance Computing (HPC) systems were deployed : ‘Hopper’ and ‘Vanda’. The state-of-the-art ‘Hopper’ HPC system significantly enhances the university’s capacity for compute-intensive scientific workloads. The advanced infrastructure empowers researchers and students to perform complex computations and data analyses with unprecedented speed and accuracy. This capability is essential for cutting edge AI research and applications, playing a crucial role in advancing NUS’ position as a leader in AI innovation both in Singapore and globally. Additionally, as part of a research collaboration with the Sustainable Tropical Data Center Testbed (STDCT) project at NUS, we deployed the ‘Vanda’ HPC system, which incorporates advanced cooling technologies. This deployment demonstrates significant power and water savings, highlighting NUS’ commitment to sustainability goals.

The Hopper HPC system suppor over 30 high-priority and high impact research projects, inclu Graph Neural Networks, large-s fMRI models, weather pattern prediction and protein folding.

NUS IT Report Card 2024 Hitting the High Notes in Perfect Harmony

3

This platform will reduce the time required for users to run their workloads on the computing system by 50%.

ts uding scale

HPConDemand is a new unified gateway that facilitates easy access to central HPC resources, transforming how researchers, students, and staff run their computational workloads. This platform provides an interactive and straightforward way to perform research computational tasks such as simulation, AI model training, and data analytics. It streamlines the process of accessing relevant computing resources and scientific applications, thus boosting productivity, shortening turnaround times, and enhancing the reproducibility of research experiments. Currently in its beta version, the platform is being tested by a group of users to ensure optimal user experience before its production release. Concurrently, there is an ongoing internship programme focused on implementing major enhancements to this platform, such as AI chatbot integration, cloud scaling, and GUI-based application integration.

4

NUS IT Report Card 2024 Hitting the High Notes in Perfect Harmony

The potential yearly savings from these bulk contracts is nearly $1.2M!

NUS IT Report Card 2024 Hitting the High Notes in Perfect Harmony

5

ScholarBank@NUS is a centralised repository for all scholarly outputs of the University, including unpublished literature and research data. It ensures long-term accessibility and compliance with open access mandates from Singapore-based funding agencies like the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health, which require researchers to publicly share their datasets. Integrated with NUS Elements and NUS Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD), it also deposits publications and theses from Master’s (Research) and Ph.D. students. As a world class repository, ScholarBank showcases our researchers’ outputs, enhancing their online visibility within the international research community, fostering collaboration, and increasing citation counts. Its implementation is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.

NUS IT has signed bulk contract agreements with AWS and Google, enabling the entire NUS community to benefit from discounts of up to 20% due to economies of scale. These contracts provide an easy and cost effective way for the community to access and procure cloud computing resources for their research work. In alignment with NUS’ sustainability goals, these cloud based subscriptions also reduce the need for and dependency on physical computing infrastructure on campus. NUS IT will continue to expand cloud options at attractive price points to support the full spectrum of researchers’ work.

Serves over 4,000 research staff and 1,600 faculty members

PUBLISHED BY NUS IT Communications & Engagement Team

HEAD Caren Chua

Patty Woo

Ying May Ling Jay Wee Jun Yi Loh Yew Cheng

Gabriel Yong U-Ren

Logayashini D/O Ragumathan

Marilyn Tan Siew Hui Wong Chiaw Ding

Stella Ang

SPECIAL THANKS TO

NUS IT Team

NUS user community

NUS stakeholders

External partners & vendors

Irwin Wong and Duke-NUS IT Team