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Monday, June 01, 2009

State's Supercomputer Crunches Criticisms

By Tom Bowles
Chairman, N.M. Computer Applications Center Board
          The Legislative Finance Committee staff recently released a report questioning the New Mexico Computer Applications Center's operations, revenue stream, management practices and future plans. We want to correct the misinformation presented in the report and later published in the news media.
        The New Mexico Computer Applications Center (NMCAC) administers the state's supercomputer, Encanto. Encanto is located at Intel's Fab 7 plant in Rio Rancho.
        The Computer Applications Center was conceived as a tool to drive economic development and it has the potential to create hundreds of jobs. Major universities, military agencies and scientific research laboratories heavily use supercomputers for calculation-intensive tasks, such as problems involving quantum mechanical physics, weather forecasting, climate research, modeling and simulations. One of the growing areas of use is among organizations involved in digital media including animation and the creation of electronic games.
        The mission of the center is to provide enhanced science and math and computing programs to 44 sites around New Mexico, including universities and community colleges. NMCAC was created as a nonprofit corporation by the research universities under the Research Parks and Economic Development Act.
        Since it received its first appropriation from the state in November 2008, NMCAC has established partnerships with the state's three research universities, received in-kind and cash income at or above projections; established a formal rate structure for use when the computer is fully operational, marketed its services, negotiated two separate lease agreements, applied for and received two grants and signed a major client to use the computer — all in a period of just over six months. The center is committed to helping communities solve issues that impact their ability to attract high-tech businesses. In carrying out this mission, we are establishing gateways at every publicly supported college and university in New Mexico, providing support to drive rural and urban economic development.
        NMCAC initially requested $42 million of funding over five years from the Legislature to set up the center. The Legislature did not fund the full request and recognizing the impact of the economic downturn, the NMCAC revised its request to $36 million over six years. After that, it will be a self-sustaining operation.
        The report questioned the process used to purchase the supercomputer. The state procured the system in an open, fully competitive bid process. Information was solicited from a number of vendors before the bid criteria were assembled, a task that involved state personnel, university representatives, loaned executives and experts.
        Questions have arisen about why the state's two national laboratories and the three research universities have been able to use the computer for free. First, all of the entities were testing the capabilities and performance of Encanto — an invaluable benefit that we did not have to purchase. Second, one of the goals of the NMCAC is to provide training for students, provide faculty with an advantage in seeking research and to develop new capabilities that can promote high-tech based economic development. This is not free use, but a trade off provided to all of the NMCAC partners. They receive time on the supercomputer; we receive the collected brainpower.
        Questions have also been asked about legal services. Edmundo Gonzales, the NMCAC chief operating officer, and an attorney, prepared the contract, which was approved by the board. The amount paid to the NMCAC's outside legal counsel is the same amount paid by the state agency participating in negotiations with NMCAC to its outside counsel.
        As with any start up there have been unforeseen concerns — some of them related to the unique arrangement devised to operate the computer, the myriad of tasks required to set up a new entity and unfamiliarity with process controls.
        We have addressed these problems and NMCAC is on track to accomplish its objectives. At this point it would be highly detrimental to the state's economic development efforts (in particular film and Green Grid) to divest itself of the supercomputer.