SCIENCE

Global supercomputer leader Cray and Sandia National Laboratories have announced the formation of the Supercomputing Institute for Learning and Knowledge Systems (SILKS) -- a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) focused on knowledge discovery, data management and informatics computing.

Located at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, SILKS will leverage the strengths of both organizations by bringing together hardware resources, software assets and researchers that are proficient in knowledge discovery, data management and informatics computing at large scale.

Sandia and Cray are collaborating on the CRADA and establishing SILKS with three primary technical objectives:

1) Accelerate the development and application of high performance computing (HPC) technologies focused on solving knowledge discovery, data management and informatics problems at scale;
2) Collaborate to overcome the implementation barriers to a wider adoption of data-driven HPC computing technologies in knowledge discovery, data management and informatics;
3) Apply the use of these technologies to enable discovery and innovation in science, engineering and for homeland security.

The main technical categories include software, hardware, services, outreach, and education and training.

"Sandia is a leading national lab with strong expertise in area of the data analysis," said Shoaib Mufti, director of knowledge management in Cray's Custom Engineering group. "Working together on SILKS will allow us to leverage Sandia's research and expertise in the area of large scale data analysis to build leading edge solutions for knowledge management. The concept of big data in the HPC environment is an important area of focus for Cray, and we are excited about the prospect of new solutions that may result from this collaborative effort with Sandia."

"This statement of intent for Sandia to collaboratively develop programs with Cray will leverage our respective strengths to originate new technologies for efficiently analyzing large data sets," said Bruce Hendrickson, Sandia manager of computational sciences and math. "These capabilities will be applicable to Sandia's fundamental science and mission work."

Cray and Sandia National Laboratories are each dedicated to enabling university faculty and students, as well as government and industry scientists and engineers, to exploit the use of HPC for scientific discovery, knowledge discovery, United States competitiveness and national security. These joint interests and expertise make both organizations integral parts of this cooperative research effort.

A Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) is a written agreement between a private company and a government agency to work together on a project. Created as a result of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980, as amended by the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986, a CRADA allows the Federal government and non-Federal partners to optimize their resources, share technical expertise in a protected environment, share intellectual property emerging from the effort, and speed the commercialization of federally developed technology.