NVIDIA Names Harvard University A CUDA Center Of Excellence

Harvard Recognized as a CUDA Center of Excellence for Its Pioneering Work Using GPU Computing

SANTA CLARA, CA : NVIDIA Corporation, inventor of the GPU, today announced that Harvard University has been recognized as a CUDA Center of Excellence for its commitment to teaching GPU Computing and its integration of CUDA™-enabled GPUs for a host of science and engineering research projects. The honor complements a prior $2M grant the University received from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the development of GPU-enabled computational science.

CUDA is NVIDIA’s computing architecture that enables its GPUs to be programmed using industry standard programming languages, opening up their massive parallel processing power to a broad range of applications beyond graphics.

“With interest in the CUDA architecture spreading rapidly across the Harvard campus and the lively scientific landscape in Boston, there has never been a better time to announce this partnership,” said Hanspeter Pfister, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Computer Science in Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Director of Visual Computing at the Harvard Initiative in Innovative Computing. “This generous gift from NVIDIA will provide excellent learning opportunities for Harvard students, accelerate our research and expand the use of GPUs for computing in science and other advanced applications.”

Pfister, who is teaching a new course related to heterogeneous computing, added, “My course is designed to respond to the growing interest in GPU programming in the world of science. We look forward to taking advantage of the new teaching cluster and CUDA environment - these new assets will provide exciting opportunities for our students and the surrounding technical community.”

Harvard is already using GPUs to carry out research across fundamentally important areas such as decoding the intricate structure of the human brain (Connectome project), discovering the origins of the universe (MWA telescope project) and studying the quantum chemistry of molecules (Qchem project).

“Naming Harvard as a CUDA Center of Excellence is a formal recognition of the strong academic collaboration between the University and NVIDIA,” said Bill Dally, chief scientist at NVIDIA. “Harvard will include the CUDA architecture in its curricular offerings. Researchers will use CUDA in projects at Harvard and in collaborative ventures with faculty at Boston University, to bring GPU computing to scientists and engineers throughout the Boston academic epicenter.”

Boston University, where physicists are using GPU computing to probe the subatomic structure of matter, is recognized as a Founding Partner in the CUDA Center of Excellence.