New Department of Energy facility to accelerate Virginia Tech research, impact
Jefferson Lab’s future High Performance Data Facility in Newport News will provide an opportunity for faculty and student researchers to work with real-world data in support of the Department of Energy’s mission.
The groundbreaking for a new center at one of the nation’s leading nuclear physics research laboratories also signified a range of new possibilities for research and service at Virginia Tech.
On June 12, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, also called Jefferson Lab, marked the start of construction for the Jefferson Lab Data Center, which will house its future High Performance Data Facility. This comes on the heels of the department selecting Virginia Tech and the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) to manage and operate Jefferson Lab as the joint venture, SURATech, in April.
“It's very hard to find realistic setups for research, especially in the area of high-performance data,” said Dimitrios Nikolopoulos, the John W. Hancock Professor of Engineering at Virginia Tech. “This is a great opportunity for our faculty and students to do research with real-world data that can have a real impact in support of the Department of Energy’s mission. It has the potential to be a great playground for research.”
Supported by a Virginia commitment of $43.3 million as well as $6 million in seed funding, the Jefferson Lab Data Center is aimed to be an approximately 30,000-square-foot facility specifically designed for high-performance computing and data services for scientific research. The building will include a roughly 10,000-square-foot data hall, 10,000 square feet for infrastructure equipment, and storage space for the High Performance Data Facility’s operations.
“Today’s groundbreaking represents more than a new building, it marks an important investment in the future of scientific discovery,” said Jens Dilling, laboratory director. “The Jefferson Lab Data Center is purpose-built to support the advanced computing, data, and AI [artificial intelligence] capabilities that modern science increasingly demands. As the future home of the High Performance Data Facility Hub, this facility will help researchers across the Department of Energy harness the power of data to accelerate breakthroughs and strengthen America’s scientific leadership.”
Department of Energy’s Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil attended the ceremony along with a host of federal, state, and local leaders, including Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, U.S. Reps. Bobby Scott and Rob Wittman, and Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones. Virginia Tech President Tim Sands as well as other higher education leaders from Virginia were also in attendance.
“We look forward to bringing expertise in science, engineering, and computing from Virginia Tech as well as the combined strengths of eight other Virginia universities who will anchor the newly created Spark Institute to support the Jefferson Lab’s national priorities and mission,” Sands said. “Together we will build on the lab’s legacy of accelerating discovery to benefit society while moving the commonwealth forward as a national leader in artificial intelligence, data science, and quantum information.”
The Spark Institute at Jefferson Lab is a key mechanism for universities across Virginia to engage with Jefferson Lab and the High Performance Data Facility. Designed to advance research and workforce development in critical science and technology areas, Virginia Tech joins eight other universities in this effort: Christopher Newport University, George Mason University, Hampton University, Norfolk State University, Old Dominion University, University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, and William & Mary.
Having been in conversations with both SURA and the Department of Energy, Nikolopoulos said the High Performance Data Facility should not be confused with the popular notion of a data center. Rather than storing data, the facility will provide a uniformed index of the wide-ranging data generated from the Department of Energy’s 17 national laboratories.
"Creating a coherent view of this data — one that allows more researchers to access it, process it, and start new projects based on it — has been elusive,” Nikolopoulos said. “The High Performance Data Facility's goal is not to house all that data, but rather to provide a guide to where that data is and what the data represents in a way that's accessible and scalable to the entire scientific community of the Department of Energy."
Christine Julien, head of Virginia Tech’s Department of Computer Science, said the facility could greatly benefit researchers in the computer science field as well as other faculty members across the university.
“From a computer science perspective, working to catalog this amount of data in a useful manner provides a lot of interesting problems our researchers can help solve,” said Julien, who is also a professor of computer science. “More broadly, there may also be opportunities to leverage that data in collaborations across departments. Getting people from different disciplines together in a room talking with each other with a shared purpose is what I’m most excited about.”
Julien said she also believes both faculty members and students will benefit from the connection to real-world data and situations.
“It really gives our faculty an avenue to connect their work to real problems and have real impact. And I think there’s going to be a lot of potential for Bridge Experience Program opportunities for our undergraduate students in computer science, engineering, and science,” she said.
Along with enhanced research experiences, Nikolopoulos believes the new collaboration with Jefferson Lab will broaden the existing efforts of Virginia Tech research already working with the lab in the nuclear acceleration space. He also sees the new High Performance Data Facility as providing an opportunity for university expertise to shape the future of research related to emerging technologies.
"We have world-leading expertise and pioneers in the area of meaningfully and safely engaging AI in the scientific process,” Nikolopoulos said. “As the Department of Energy looks to support its work with AI, we have templates for how this works at Virginia Tech, much of which I think could be expanded using the facility to serve many other areas as well.”
