Indiana to launch supercomputer grid

Indiana will lay the foundation for expanding research projects and other collaborations among universities, businesses and government institutions when the state officially launches the Northwest Indiana Computation Grid this month.

The grid will initially link Purdue University and University of Notre Dame sites and will also connect with U.S. government research facilities, including Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago.

The grid project is being launched in concert with the development of a center for research computing at Notre Dame and a new Cyber Center at Purdue's West Lafayette, Ind., campus, but it's also being touted as a stimulus for work on homeland security issues such as modeling and simulation of chemical, biological and radiological dispersion during a terrorist attack.

That kind of research was one of the reasons given by congressional grid proponents Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.), who pushed for the appropriation of the $6.5 million of Energy Department funds that is paying for the grid.

"This investment is important for many reasons, including the innovative research it will foster in enhancing the national security of the United States," Lugar said.

The Indiana grid is expected to eventually be linked with other similar high-speed computation networks nationwide.