GAMING

The University of Wyoming Board of Trustees today authorized spending up to an additional $750,000 to complete architectural and engineering services for the proposed NCAR Wyoming Supercomputer Center (NWSC) to be built near Cheyenne.

NCAR, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, will operate the facility. UW will again seek legislative support to restore the $750,000 to UW's block grant using funds from the 2007 appropriation of $20 million for the supercomputing facility.

Last summer, Gov. Dave Freudenthal and UW President Tom Buchanan traveled to Washington, D.C., and secured a timeline for the project from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The board's action allows the project to remain on schedule to seek final approval from NSF to break ground next spring.

The trustees took similar action last November to authorize spending $3.5 million to avoid a delay in starting the design work for the facility. The 2009 Wyoming State Legislature later approved restoring the $3.5 million to UW's block grant.

The NWSC is being developed in partnership with NCAR, the Governor's Office, the State Treasurer's Office, Cheyenne LEADS, the Wyoming Business Council and Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power. It will contain some of the world's most powerful supercomputers dedicated to improving scientific understanding of climate change, severe weather, air quality and other vital atmospheric science and geoscience topics.