Working with Mira, the fifth-fastest supercomputer in the world

What role do you play at Argonne and what kind of work do you do?

I’m the Deputy Division Director at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF), and I’m also the project director for the large supercomputing systems that we bring into the lab. In many ways, acting as a project director is my primary role, because the large computer systems we bring into the ALCF are multimillion-dollar systems.

“We have a large team of people that worked very closely with each other, and it’s satisfying to see all of this collaborative work successfully come together.”

There’s a lot that goes into overseeing this, as it takes large amounts of our staff’s time and coordination working with our vendors, making sure we’re getting what we need, and also ensuring that the system, as delivered, meets the U.S. Department of Energy’s mission needs, as well.

The ALCF is home to Mira, the fifth-fastest supercomputer in the world, which is now in full production mode and available for scientific research.

Can you talk about the process of getting to this important milestone for Argonne and the ALCF?

Typically, it takes about five years, from start to finish, to complete a project like this – to go from preparing a budget and figuring out what type of system is possible to the delivery and deployment of the system.

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