NCShare partnership to bolster Carolina’s AI research capacity

UNC-Chapel Hill has joined the North Carolina Shared Research and Education partnership, a collaborative computing effort that will enhance the University’s research and education capabilities, particularly related to artificial intelligence.

As part of NCShare, Carolina researchers will have access to high-speed networking, shared computational resources and advanced technologies to support scientific discovery and innovation. The tools are critical for research involving AI, allowing researchers to process large amounts of data faster.

The University joins several higher education partners across the state on the initiative, including Duke University, Davidson College, MCNC and fellow UNC System schools North Carolina Central University and North Carolina A&T State University. Additionally, UNC System schools Fayetteville State University, NC State University, UNC Charlotte and Winston-Salem State University have signed on as early adopters of a new NCShare platform related to graphics processing units.

The collaboration provides North Carolina researchers and students access to a range of computing resources that often have high cost and technical barriers.

Carolina will have access to several key NCShare services:

• Science DMZ: A dedicated network architecture that facilitates high-performance data transfers, enabling researchers to access external sites with high speeds that are not commonly available.
• Compute as a Service: A shared computing environment that simplifies access to advanced software and computational tools, reducing the need for extensive campus support and lowering costs.
• GPUs as a Service: A virtualized platform providing access to powerful GPUs, essential for artificial intelligence and machine learning research.

“The GPUs as a Service offering in particular provides Carolina researchers with access to high-end AI computational capabilities that are otherwise not available to them,” said John McGee, assistant vice chancellor for research computing.

NCShare is a collaboration of several National Science Foundation grants. Michael Barker, vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer, is a co-principal investigator on the latest, “NC Share Accelerating Impact – GPU-as-a-Service (AI-GaaS).”

Carolina is on the forefront of AI research. The University now offers undergraduate data science degree programs and is home to researchers studying AI in a range of fields.