Freddie Salsbury

Freddie Salsbury

Professor of Physics, Physics Graduate Program Director, Assistant Director of Health Professions, and JBSD Editor-in-Chief.

FYS 100 Visits Wake Forest’s High-Performance Computing Center

Published:

Wide classroom view of FYS 100 students seated at tables while two presenters introduce high-performance computing on a projected slide.

Students in my FYS 100 course, AI and the Physics of Life: AlphaFold and Why Molecular Shape Matters, visited Wake Forest’s high-performance computing touchdown space and data center on August 26.

We began with a short introduction to how a computing cluster differs from a single machine. Students then toured the data center and saw the server racks and network connections used for computational research and teaching.

The course connects AI methods such as AlphaFold to molecular shape and physical principles. The visit gave the class a look at the machines that run large calculations.

Thanks to Wake Forest’s IS/HPC staff for hosting us.

Students face two presenters and a projected slide titled “What is a Supercomputer?”

Students gather around an HPC staff member in the touchdown space.

A Wake Forest HPC staff member points toward a server rack.

Open server racks reveal cable connections and computing equipment.

Students gather in a data-center aisle around an HPC staff member.

A Wake Forest HPC staff member speaks with students at the end of the tour.