A group of 10 universities led by UC San Diego is embarking on a $50.5 million effort to dramatically improve the speed and efficiency of computers, work that could do everything from accelerate drug discovery creating better weather forecasts.
The coalition, which includes schools such as Stanford and UCLA, is focused on making advancements in next-generation software and computer chips. Among other things, both are needed to move data from memory sources to processors faster.
“Currently, it takes an average of 6.5 years and enormous computing power to determine which pharmaceutical compounds should be tested in clinical trials – and more than 90% of trials fail,” said Tajana Šimunić Rosing, professor of computer engineering at UCSD. lead the project.
“We plan to reduce this timeframe so that drug discovery takes days rather than years, and the results are more accurate.”
The Semiconductor Research Corp., a North Carolina-based consortium that brings together industry, government and academia on major projects, will provide $35 million in funding. The rest will come from the schools involved in the project.
UCSD has been given a leadership role, in part because it is one of the largest computing and engineering centers in the country. The campus is home to the San Diego Supercomputer Center, the Halicioglu Data Science Institute, and the Jacobs School of Engineering, which has nearly 10,000 students.
The university recently opened a $180 million research center that focuses on chip development, with lots of support from Qualcomm of San Diego, one of the world’s largest chipmakers. Such research received a boost from the Biden administration in August with the approval of a $52 billion chip development bill that aims to make companies more competitive in the global semiconductor industry. -drivers. The bill is specifically aimed at helping the United States compete with China.