{"id":2617,"date":"2022-11-07T17:38:47","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T17:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/machine-learning\/2022\/11\/07\/tiny-computer-huge-learnings-students-at-smu-build-baby-supercomputer-with-nvidia-jetson-edge-ai-platform\/"},"modified":"2022-11-07T17:38:47","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T17:38:47","slug":"tiny-computer-huge-learnings-students-at-smu-build-baby-supercomputer-with-nvidia-jetson-edge-ai-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/machine-learning\/2022\/11\/07\/tiny-computer-huge-learnings-students-at-smu-build-baby-supercomputer-with-nvidia-jetson-edge-ai-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny Computer, Huge Learnings: Students at SMU Build Baby Supercomputer With NVIDIA Jetson Edge AI Platform"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cDIY\u201d and \u201csupercomputer\u201d aren\u2019t words typically used together.<\/p>\n

But a do-it-yourself supercomputer is exactly what students built at Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, using 16 NVIDIA Jetson Nano<\/a> modules, four power supplies, more than 60 handmade wires, a network switch and some cooling fans.<\/p>\n

The project, dubbed SMU\u2019s \u201cbaby supercomputer,\u201d aims to help educate those who may never get hands-on with a normal-sized supercomputer, which can sometimes fill a warehouse, or be locked in a data center or in the cloud.<\/p>\n

Instead, this mini supercomputer fits comfortably on a desk, allowing students to tinker with it and learn about what makes up a cluster<\/a>. A touch screen displays a dashboard with the status of all of its nodes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started this project to demonstrate the nuts and bolts of what goes into a computer cluster,\u201d said Eric Godat, team lead for research and data science in the internal IT organization at SMU.<\/p>\n

Next week, the baby supercomputer will be on display at SC22<\/a>, a supercomputing conference taking place in Dallas, just down the highway from SMU.<\/p>\n

The SMU team will host a booth to talk to researchers, vendors and students about the university\u2019s high-performance computing programs and the recent deployment of its NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD<\/a> for AI-accelerated research.<\/p>\n

Plus, in collaboration with Mark III Systems \u2014 a member of the NVIDIA Partner Network<\/a> \u2014 the SMU Office of Information Technology will provide conference attendees with a tour of the campus data center to showcase the DGX SuperPOD in action. Learn details at SMU\u2019s booth #3834.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re bringing the baby supercomputer to the conference to get people to stop by and ask, \u2018Oh, what\u2019s that?\u2019\u201d said Godat, who served as a mentor for Conner Ozenne, a senior computer science major at SMU and one of the brains behind the cluster.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI started studying computer science in high school because programming fulfilled the foreign language requirement,\u201d said Ozenne, who now aims to integrate AI and machine learning with web design for his career. \u201cDoing those first projects as a high school freshman, I immediately knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ozenne is a STAR at SMU \u2014 a Student Technology Associate in Residence. He first pitched the design and budget for the baby supercomputer to Godat\u2019s team two summers ago. With a grant of a couple thousand dollars and a whole lot of enthusiasm, he got to work.<\/p>\n

Birth of a Baby Supercomputer<\/b><\/h2>\n

Ozenne, in collaboration with another student, built the baby supercomputer from scratch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had to learn how to strip wires and not shock themselves \u2014 they put together everything from the power supplies to the networking all by themselves,\u201d Godat said. With a smile, he added, \u201cWe only started one small fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The first iteration was a mess of wires on a table connecting the NVIDIA Jetson Nano developer kits<\/a>, with cardboard boxes as heatsinks, Ozenne said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe chose to use NVIDIA Jetson modules because no other small compute devices have onboard GPUs, which would let us tackle more AI and machine learning problems,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Soon Ozenne gave the baby supercomputer case upgrades: from cardboard to foam to acrylic plates, which he laser cut from 3D vector files in SMU\u2019s innovation gym, a makerspace for students.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my first time doing all of this, and it was a great learning experience, with lots of fun nights in the lab,\u201d Ozenne said.<\/p>\n

A Work in Progress<\/b><\/h2>\n

In just four months, the project went from nothing to something that resembled a supercomputer, according to Ozenne. But the project is ongoing.<\/p>\n

The team is now developing the mini cluster\u2019s software stack, with the help of the NVIDIA JetPack software development kit<\/a>, and prepping it to accomplish some small-scale machine learning tasks. Plus, the baby supercomputer could level up with the recently announced NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano<\/a> modules.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD just opened up on campus, so we don\u2019t really need this baby supercomputer to be an actual compute environment,\u201d Godat said. \u201cBut the mini cluster is an effective teaching tool for how all this stuff really works \u2014 it lets students experiment with stripping the wires, managing a parallel file system, reimaging cards and deploying cluster software.\u201d<\/p>\n

SMU\u2019s NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD, which includes 160 NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs<\/a>, is in an alpha-rollout phase for faculty, who are using it to train AI models for molecular dynamics, computational chemistry, astrophysics, quantum mechanics and a slew of other research topics.<\/p>\n

Godat collaborates with the NVIDIA DGX team to flexibly configure the DGX SuperPOD to support tens of different AI, machine learning, data processing and HPC projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love it, because every day is different \u2014 I could be working on an AI-related project in the school of the arts, and the next day I\u2019m in the law school, and the next I\u2019m in the particle physics department,\u201d said Godat, who himself has a Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics from SMU.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are applications for AI everywhere,\u201d Ozenne agreed.<\/p>\n

Learn more from Godat and other experts on designing an AI Center of Excellence in this NVIDIA GTC session available on demand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Join <\/i>NVIDIA at SC22<\/i><\/a> to explore partner booths on the show floor and engage with virtual content all week \u2014 including a special address, demos and other sessions.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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