From studying Alabama’s water resources to testing new materials, researchers across the state could soon have access to more computing power through UA’s new supercomputing center.

UA expects to open its High Performance Computing and Data Center on the Tuscaloosa campus in early 2027. Dell Technologies announced Nov. 11 that it is supplying computing equipment and data storage for the center, which will serve the University of Alabama System and create opportunities to work with other universities, government agencies and businesses across the state.

For a researcher studying Alabama’s water resources, that could mean running a computer simulation to see how water moves through a watershed after heavy rain. The same center could help researchers study how a new material might hold up under stress or use artificial intelligence to look for patterns in large amounts of data.

Fernanda Foertter, the center’s executive director, said the project grew out of a need on campus.

“This center started with a need for advanced computing at the University of Alabama, but the investment from the State of Alabama gave us an opportunity to think much bigger,” Foertter said. “We are building shared infrastructure that can support researchers, students, government and industry across the state. Our goal is to make advanced computing easier to access and useful to the people solving Alabama’s most important research and technology problems.”

UA lists the project budget at $96 million. The state provided $46 million, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, awarded a $44.55 million grant. UA is contributing $5.45 million from university reserves.

The center will use Dell servers and NVIDIA hardware to run simulations and AI applications, with storage that can expand as researchers collect more data. The project builds on a relationship between UA and Dell that spans more than 20 years.

UA says the center will support its new School of Data Science and give students across majors access to advanced computing, allowing students to work with the same kinds of tools researchers use to run simulations and make sense of large amounts of data.

Sherri Blevins is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You may contact her at [email protected].