NSF Supercomputing Grant

Chronicle of Higher Education (Oct. 26) -- A new $120 million grant that the National Science Foundation offered in July for its next supercomputer project is likely to have only a handful of applicants when the bids are opened in late November. Even the U. of I., the patriarch of academic supercomputing, has heard doubts about its ability to persist in the face of its state’s extensive budget problems. “I won’t say it hasn’t been a challenge,” says William D. Gropp, a professor of computer science and the director of the university’s National Center for Supercomputing Applications. “But we will be putting in a strong proposal.”