HPC@USU was established in September 2005 under the Vice President for Research as a research service center to serve and expand the computational needs of the USU community. Utilizing funds from an NSF major research instrumentation (MRI) grant and VPR financing, HPC@USU purchased a 256-processor cluster "Uinta" with three different networks. Thomas Hauser, research faculty member in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, was hired as center director. In 2008, a national search was conducted to replace former Lead System Administrator John Hanks who took his hpc experience to the Broad Center in Boston. Lead System Administrator Nate Benson was hired from the private sector, bringing management, legal, and system administration expertise.

Major accomplishments 2008-2009:

• HPC@USU was awarded FY10 federal funding High Performance Computing Utah, to continue funding through June 2010
• HPC@USU will again collaborate with Uof U and SUU to attend SC09 in Portland, OR. USU undergrad and graduate students will present research posters, attend workshops and enhance their expertise in HPC capabilities. Students also network to explore career opportunities in HPC industry.
• Wasatch Cluster, doubling computing capacity, speed and storage, will be available in September 2009
• New Lead System Administrator Nate Benson hired
• HPC director and student researchers developed and led the Utah Advanced Computing Summer Institute at Southern Utah University in August 2008.
• HPC@USU again collaborated with Uof U and SUU to attend SC08 in Austin,Texas. USU undergrad and graduate students presented research posters, attended workshops and enhanced their expertise in HPC capabilities
• Director Thomas Hauser organized and chairs the Utah Cyberinfrastructure Committee, with partners from UoU, WSU, UVU and SUU. In 2008, Thomas Hauser presented Utah Cyberinfrastructure accomplishments to the state legislature
• HPC utilized its visualization and access grid laboratory to provide faculty and students with resources for high-resolution visualization, remote collaboration through the Access Grid, and three-dimensional visualization. In addition, high end workstations are available for faculty and students for data analysis, and pre-/post-processing. This laboratory is successfully used for distance education engineering and visualization classes
• Director Thomas Hauser was a co-organizer of the CASC and Educause CCI-WG sponsored workshop "Developing a Coherent Cyberinfrastructure from Local Campus to National Facilities: Challenges and Strategies"
• As a service center, HPC is available to collaborate with USU faculty and researchers to quickly and efficiently offer cost-effective HPC solutions to support USU researchers. Current researchers include the colleges of Agriculture, Engineering, Natural Resources, and Science.