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Invitation to Brainstorming for a NSF Innovative Testbed Proposal due in October 2023

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Dear Colleagues,

The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) is considering submitting a proposal to the recent NSF solicitation: https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/advanced-computing-systems-services-adapting-rapid

Specifically, under Category II, Innovative Prototypes/Testbeds: innovative forward-looking capabilities deploying novel technologies, architectures, usage modes, etc., and exploring new target applications, methods, and paradigms for S&E discoveries. 

PSC is currently executing a previously awarded Category II project (Neocortex): https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2005597&HistoricalAwards=false by hosting and operating a testbed focused on the acceleration of compute-intensive machine learning and other sparse linear algebra workloads. 

For the 2023 opportunity, we are thinking about possibilities in quantum informatics and/or neuromorphic computing – areas in which many of you have some expertise. From our internal discussions, the idea of proposing an algorithm, software and hardware development and co-design testbed accessible to the national computing and computational science community. This would have simulations running on a small classical system at PSC while communicating with experimental labs for testing and feedback/co-design. These could be quantum and/or neuromorphic computing experiments in your labs, helping your research. 

We would like to expand our brainstorming activities to include this broader community to work together on feasible ideas and to develop a collaboration to work with us on this. We want to hold an initial in person/hybrid meeting in early January to gauge the broader interest in this. We expect this to be the first of several meetings and workshops that will allow us to build the team and develop a completive proposal. 

Our first meeting will really be a conversation starter with the point of this invitation is to elicit your ideas, and gauge interest in working with PSC on this. We would like to get together with you in early January 2023 at 300 South Craig Street (or remote). If you are interested, can you please let us know your availability between January 4 and 10 in the poll.

https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/boVxy5ka 

Looking forward to developing this proposal

Sergiu Sanielevici & Curtis Meyer