Auburn’s technology contributes to enabling services for those directly engaged in research. As Auburn achieves its goal of increasing research volume and worldwide collaboration, the IT community will provide continuous improvements in systems needed to both manage that growth and provide cutting edge computing capacity.

Auburn’s research computing tools are robust and utilization is growing. Currently, 6,000 compute cores are used by a number of academic departments as illustrated below.

Auburn’s technology environment provides researchers with the capacity to conduct computationally-intensive research through a collaboration of college and central administrative units, providing high performance and massively parallel computing resources. Auburn’s colleges and research centers will have the tools to conduct innovative research in areas such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Computing, and Cybersecurity Engineering – all knowledge and computationally intensive programs. OIT must develop the skillsets that, in partnership with the Biggio Center, enable faculty to use these new tools effectively.

Research computing is more than High Performance Computing. Acquisition and analysis of massive datasets and unstructured datasets will enable research in non-computationally intensive areas. Collaborative programs such as Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition, Presidents United to Solve Hunger, and various genome research projects process and exchange vast amounts of data both on and off campus. These programs, and other similar programs, will be supported with robust storage and networking services.

The impact of Auburn’s outreach extends worldwide. Agricultural sensor data, in various forms, is gathered, analyzed, and made available to improve quality of life for people across the globe.

Research is a complex enterprise. Regulations, complex funding sources, grant administration, and scientific data curation are essential to supporting services in any research enterprise. Auburn’s business units, Library, Vice President for Research, and OIT will work together to modernize this essential support structure, from invoicing and accounting to network connectivity and data integrity. Robust systems will maintain an effective level of service that supports the university’s planned growth in research.

Sub-goals Supporting Research

• 4.1 Research computing and storage capacity will be doubled by 2024. Auburn will deploy a combination of on-premise and cloud-based technologies to support research requirements.
• 4.2 A campus-wide document management system will be deployed to allow automated routing and archiving of research proposals, awards, invoices, and deliverables. Deployment will be done in phases with the project completed for the entire campus by CY2024.
• 4.3 By the end of CY2021, network capacity in the range of 100 gigabits per second (Gbps) will provide connectivity with colleagues worldwide and support timely exchange of research information.
• 4.4. OIT will be active, engaged partners in supporting research initiatives. An efficient electronic research administration service will be implemented in phases. Phase I will consist of business process re-engineering and will be completed by January 2020. Phase II will implement an initial set of refreshed business processes and will be completed within 36 months of completion of Phase I.
• 4.5 Auburn’s research network will leverage Internet2 and Southern Crossroads connectivity, thereby enabling collaboration anywhere Internet2 has network connectivity.

Corresponding Goals from the Auburn University Strategic Plan:

Goal 1: Elevated Auburn Experience

Goal 2: Transformative Research

Goal 3: Impactful Service

Goal 6: Operational Excellence