ICER at the MSU Science Festival
Stop by ICER's booth at the MSU Science Festival expo zone! While supplies last, pick up a free pair of VR glasses to take the 360-degree virtual tour of MSU's supercomputer and grab a copy of our beautifully illustrated graphic novel about supercomputing. We also have a "silicon petting zoo" for a hands-on experience with supercomputer parts, and a simulation designed to introduce the concept of parallel computing. Learn more about each activity below!
All the activities below are available at ICER's booth on April 1 and 2 from 10 am - 4 pm at the STEM Teaching and Learning Facility Room 3201.
The Story of Supercomputing and Silicon Petting Zoo!
Description:
Scientists use supercomputers to accelerate their research. A question that would take a decade to answer on a personal laptop can be answered much faster on a supercomputer. Join the Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research (ICER) as we take you on a journey with our new graphic novel, "The Story of Supercomputing," to learn how a scientist uses supercomputers to answer her super-questions. Do not miss our silicon petting zoo, where you will be able to explore parts of computers and supercomputers that you normally would not see. A supercomputing expert will be available to answer your questions!
Access a digital copy of the graphic novel by clicking here.
Supercomputing in 360 Degrees: Explore the Nuts and Bolts!
Description:
MSU’s supercomputer can perform four quadrillion math operations in a single second. One human working every second of every day would take over 128 million years to do the same! This massive speedup is critical for computational researchers from multidisciplinary backgrounds to conduct their work. The Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research (ICER) provides support and compute services for this cyberinfrastructure. Join ICER in exploring the supercomputing center in a virtual 360-degree tour that walks you through the critical hardware components, the impressive cooling system, the process of running applications, and more. Do not miss the accompanying introductory video led by Eniac, ICER’s animated computer node!
Start here to learn more about supercomputing:
For best performance on mobile, watch on YouTube.
Get your VR glasses for this 360-degree video tour of the data center! Open the video on your phone and tap the 
icon to enter 360 mode. No VR glasses? You can still get the 360-degree experience by watching the video on the YouTube app on your phone or by clicking and dragging your mouse over the video on your desktop.
For best performance on mobile, watch on YouTube.
Interactive Simulation of Parallel Processing for Supercomputers
Description:
What makes MSU’s supercomputer so super? The key ingredient is referred to as parallel processing – in other words, MSU’s supercomputer can do many things at once, while a normal laptop computer can do comparatively few things at once. Learn more about parallel processing in a fun, interactive, and hands-on demonstration called a “Raspberry Pi Supercomputer.” Play with a mock supercomputer to see how much of a performance improvement you can create with parallel computing!