Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 2, 2009. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
NVIDIA named Harvard University a CUDA Center of Excellence. At nearly the same time, the university received $2 million from the National Science Foundation for research in GPU and computational science.
NVIDIA’s CUDA technology provided a C programming environment for developing software that used the parallel processing power of graphics processors for complex calculations. CUDA-capable GPUs were already deployed worldwide, with developers using the tools to accelerate applications ranging from video and audio encoding to oil and gas exploration, product design, medical imaging, and scientific research.
Harvard used GPUs in projects including the Center for Brain Science’s Connectome project, which studied how the human brain functions; the MWA telescope project, which investigated the formation of planets and galaxies; and the Q-Chem molecular quantum-chemistry project.
“The designation of Harvard University as a CUDA Center of Excellence formally recognizes the close scientific collaboration between the university and NVIDIA,” said NVIDIA Chief Scientist Bill Dally. He said Harvard would incorporate CUDA into its curriculum and use it in Harvard and Boston University collaborative projects, making GPU computing available to the wider Boston scientific community.
Further information was available at http://www.nvidia.de, http://www.nvidia.de/cuda, http://www.harvard.edu, and http://www.seas.harvard.edu.
NVIDIA had named the University of Cambridge the first European CUDA Center of Excellence in December 2008.
