NTNU to invest in more powerful infrastructure for artificial intelligence

The AI and machine learning research community at NTNU is growing at a fast rate and the number of research projects and collaboration agreements with external partners are increasing rapidly. This calls for more powerful computing resources, with secure and efficient handling of data shared between NTNU researchers and external partners as a key element. We are therefore happy that NTNU will invest in updating such infrastructure to benefit both AI researchers and student. 

The funding will be spent on upgrading the EPIC/IDUN cluster, which is the name of the GPU cluster already in place at NTNU. EPIC/IDUN plays a key role in fields such as artificial intelligence, energy efficient computing systems, unconventional computing, and nano systems. However, there is a need to improve and strengthen the cluster. The funding that now has been obtained through an internal call for advanced scientific equipment at NTNU, will contribute to these efforts.  

Parts of the funding from NTNU will be used to increase computing capacity by purchasing additional GPU capacity. Parts of the funding will also be spent on new software and hardware that will improve the functionality for secure storage of large quantities of data. This will improve the ability of the infrastructure to store and process data from external partners, with a particular focus on sensitive data. There are several risks related to handling sensitive data, such as unauthorized disclosure and data breaches. Secure storage and processing of data is indeed essential in several ongoing projects and is a necessity for collaborations with a variety of partners. Streamlining data storage and processing (e.g., for the purpose of building machine learning models) will make sharing of business sensitive data easier between external partners and NTNU researchers and students.