Contact: Maridith Geuder
Clusters of supercomputers may prove to be a major asset in planning for and responding to environmental disasters, particularly in urban environments.
Engineers at Mississippi State University have taken a leading role in developing technologies that provide near real-time information for emergency personnel responding to chemical spills and the release--accidental or intentional--of toxic contaminants.
Home to the 13th most powerful supercomputing cluster at an American university and the 85th most powerful site in the United States, MSU's Engineering Research Center has brought international attention to the Starkville school. Specifically, the center is recognized for its capability in applying high-performance computing to simulate real-world problems for both private industry and government agencies, including the Department of Defense.
MSU researchers recently used the city of New Orleans as a model to help test the potential of computing simulations for determining the quickest and most effective disaster reactions. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Mississippi Space Commerce Initiative provided support for the study.
Bharat Soni, head of the ERC's computational systems center, said the simulation took into account thousands of Crescent City variables, including fluctuating wind directions, building locations and potential escape routes.
"Developing a computer model to track a disaster and predict its behavior and consequences for a variety of scenarios is a formidable task," Soni said. "Our New Orleans simulation had 12 million data points and required three days to generate.
"Obviously, those responding to a major urban disaster wouldn't have three days to wait for a computer simulation," he added. "That's why having advance access to objective, detailed information is essential in helping response teams quickly make life-saving decisions."
Soni said the ERC researchers continue to build on their past successes in this field. One adaptive computational model under development would provide immediate data to officials coping with rare man-made disasters by factoring in meteorological data, a description of the area that includes building elevations and the potential directions of dispersion for a variety of pollutants.
While the events of Sept. 11 demonstrate the possibility of chemical terrorism, Soni said the disaster-mitigation models could also be called on to deal with hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural seasonal disasters.
"Because computer simulations can be a valuable tool in disaster mitigation strategies for maintaining public safety, many research efforts in information technology are beginning to bear fruit," he said. "It's our mission to continue taking advantage of these breakthroughs to develop new tools and make existing applications more efficient and usable."