AweSim Background
- What is AweSim?
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AweSim is the Ohio Supercomputer Center’s (OSC) internationally recognized industrial engagement program, previously known as Blue Collar Computing. The program allows OSC, along with simulation and engineering experts and industry to provide small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) with high-performance computing (HPC) based modeling and simulation (M&S) technology that enhance innovation and economic competitiveness.
- How would these services help my business?
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HPC-based M&S enhances competitiveness and efficiency for businesses by decreasing product development time, improving quality and speeding up time to market. For example, rather than relying on costly and time-intensive physical testing, HPC based M&S enables manufacturers to pare down the initial phases of product testing by eliminating undesirable prototypes before the physical testing process begins.
- How is AweSim different?
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AweSim improves ease of access to OSC computing resources for SMBs. In the past, industry clients have had direct access to only a couple of applications through a unique user portal or have worked with OSC to develop personalized projects. Under AweSim, the App Store allows small to mid-sized businesses to access M&S software resources directly from their desktops to address common issues, such as virtual wind tunnel testing using computational fluid dynamics.
- Is OSC’s capacity for academic services reduced with AweSim?
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No, OSC's AweSim services to industry do not reduce the center's capacity and commitment to provide HPC and resources to Ohio’s academic community.
- What makes OSC unique from other supercomputer centers?
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First, AweSim is based upon a unique collaboration between the public and private sectors. Second, the user experience offered by OSC’s AweSim initiative is unlike any other. Industrial users can access apps on-demand and have flexibility with the pay-as-you-go pricing structure, which provides companies with unparalleled ease of access to high performance computing resources that may otherwise be unattainable.
App Information
- Who can use these apps?
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AweSim’s apps are designed for use by small businesses, start-ups, entrepreneurs, and manufacturers alike.
- How do you decide which apps to develop for the App Store?
- OSC relies on modeling and simulation experts to identify key client needs and develop corresponding apps.
- Who designs the apps available through the App Store?
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Development of the initial apps for the AweSim App Store was completed by three Ohio-based industrial design and engineering companies: AltaSim Techonologies LLC, TotalSim LLC and Kinetic Vision. Any app developer who is interested in offering an app via AweSim is welcome to contact OSC to discuss arrangements.
- How do I gain access to the apps?
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The AweSim project is innovative in allowing small to mid-sized businesses direct desktop access to these applications through the App Store. Any user with an existing service contract with OSC is able to access these apps through a website. For more details, see https://www.osc.edu/supercomputing/accounts
- Is there a fee to use these apps?
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Users generally can employ a flexible “pay-as-you-go” payment structure to easily model and simulate potential products. Exact fees depend on the specific app, complexity of the model and simulation, as well as any commercial software license costs.
- How do I know that the results from the apps are verifiable?
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There are many case studies documenting the benefits of HPC M&S. For instance, Whirlpool used this technology to optimize the design of a refrigerator cabinet resulting in a direct savings of 10 percent in the materials costs for components and $2 per product in the manufacturing process. Similarly, Toyota uses HPC M&S to speed up design, increase quality and reduce R&D costs.
The purpose of AweSim apps are to greatly reduce the cost of prototyping for end users by eliminating unsuccessful designs before physical reproduction and testing of selected models begins. You can rest assured that the app results are physically verifiable. OSC’s partners in app development have expertise in the areas of engineering, physics and computational science, in addition to years of experience in industry.
Training & Support
- Does OSC offer any training for industry users?
- Yes, for more information on technical training, please see https://www.osc.edu/supercomputing/training OSC also can provide general training target to business leaders about the ROI of modeling and simulation. Please see https://www.awesim.org/services
- What types of expertise are available from staff?
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OSC provides expertise in supercomputing applications, networking, data communications, utility computing node operation, cluster installation and HPC training. OSC has experts and support staff with experience in a wide spectrum of subject areas, including mechanical engineering, chemistry, visualization, data storage and bioinformatics. Additionally, experts from around the state who collaborate with OSC can, as deemed necessary, provide insight into specific challenges.
- Can we personalize AweSim for my company?
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Yes. While AweSim makes access to several apps easier and cost-effective for small to mid-sized businesses, OSC continues to provide computational expertise for individual clients who desire more personalized attention in tackling specific M&S problems. OSC also offers its resources to large manufacturing clients in need of supplemental computational support.
- What type of software packages can I use at OSC?
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OSC typically does not provide commercial licenses of HPC software packages. If your company’s use of OSC’s HPC systems requires the use of commercial software, please contact OSC to discuss the possible options.
OSC has successfully worked with commercial clients and independent software vendors to enable commercial use. For example, staff have set up virtual private networks (VPNs) between OSC and commercial client sites. Through a VPN, a client can use their existing software on jobs submitted to OSC systems. As an alternative, commercial clients can have their software installed on-site for use with an OSC system.
OSC experts have experience with a variety of software: staff maintain more than 100 different software packages. A list of applications compatible with OSC systems can be found at http://www.osc.edu/supercomputing/software
Computational Resources & IP Management
- What are OSC’s HPC resources?
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OSC provides access to several HPC environments, details of which are available at https://www.awesim.org/services
- What are my storage options for data?
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OSC offers flexible storage options for industry users. OSC has a Mass Storage Environment with many petabytes of disk storage spread across multiple types of filesystems. Details are available at https://www.osc.edu/services/research_data_storage
- Who retains Intellectual Property rights for content?
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App users own the rights to data/the results from their app runs. For the developed apps, OSC has rights to the user interfaces, while app developers own the IP related to the behind-the-scenes, domain-specific algorithms.