ARSC hosts summer tours at Discovery Lab

Submitted by Debra Damron
Phone: 907-450-8662
06/01/09

The Arctic Region Supercomputing Center is opening its Discovery Lab for public tours every Wednesday at 1 p.m. through Aug. 26. Summer tours offer visitors a chance to view the latest 3-D applications in development at UAF and take a leap into virtual reality. Park in the Taku visitor lot, follow the sidewalk up the hill and cross the road. Follow the sidewalk signs to the loading dock on the left behind Rasmuson Library. Tour size is limited to 20 participants on a first-come, first-served basis. Please come early to secure a seat. Children must be 10 years of age or older and be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

"Supercomputers allow scientists to study things that are too big, too small, too far away or too dangerous to do in the real world," said Discovery Lab manager Bob Huebert. "We hope visitors leave the Discovery Lab with a better understanding of what a supercomputer is and how high-performance computing done at ARSC is helping scientists at UAF and around the world learn new things."

The hourlong presentation includes a 3-D, virtual tour of Mars as well as a virtual tour of the center’s supercomputers and petabyte-scale data storage facility. Tours also may include a virtual visit to the city of Fairbanks as it was nearly 100 years ago or a presentation on the powerful and destructive action of tsunamis.

ARSC is the sole provider of open research computing capabilities for the Defense Department’s High Performance Computing Modernization Program. HPCMP has six DoD Supercomputing Resource Centers throughout the country: two in Mississippi and one each in Maryland, Ohio, Alaska and Hawaii.

Call 907-450-8638 or email tours_arsc@arsc.edu for more information. For directions, consult the map to the Discovery Lab: http://www.arsc.edu/news/images/discovery_map.gif. For information on other university tours, see http://www.uaf.edu/visituaf/.

CONTACT: Bob Huebert, ARSC Discovery Lab manager, at 907-450-8638 or tours_arsc@arsc.edu. Debra Damron, ARSC communications group lead, at 907-450-8662 or damron@arsc.edu.

ON THE WEB: www.arsc.edu

DD/6-1-09/179-09