Friday, September 11, 2015

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The University of New Hampshire at Manchester announced today that it has been named a GPU Education Center by NVIDIA, the world leader in visual computing.

GPU Education Centers are recognized institutions that have integrated GPU accelerated computing techniques into their mainstream computer programming curriculum. GPU computing leverages the parallel processing capabilities of GPU accelerators and accelerated computing software to deliver dramatic increases in performance for scientific, artificial intelligence, deep learning, graphics, engineering, and other demanding applications.

UNH Manchester was recognized for its commitment to advancing the state of parallel programming education.

UNH Manchester’s new GPU computing laboratory will allow the Analytics and Computer Science faculty to expand education and research for students in deep learning, computer vision and speech recognition. Dr. Jeremiah Johnson, Assistant Professor of Data Science and coordinator of the Analytics program at UNH Manchester, said the lab will enable students to analyze medical imagery, explore models of speech and leverage GPU computing and CUDA C/C++ in courses for both the Analytics and Computer Science programs.

"NVIDIA’s generous support provides UNH Manchester with resources to develop a state-of-the-art GPU computing laboratory, where students and faculty can learn, teach and research the tools and techniques that will power the next generation of technological innovation," Dr. Johnson said.

This year UNH Manchester launched its Bachelor of Science in Analytics program — the northeast region’s first on-campus bachelor’s degree program in data analytics, and one of just a handful of its kind in the country. It combines both cutting-edge technical skills and essential professional skills like effective communication and collaboration. UNH Manchester’s Computing Technology department offers bachelor’s degrees in Computer Information Systems and Computer Science & Entrepreneurship, as well as a master’s in Information Technology. The GPU computing lab will broaden the skillsets of students in all of these programs, giving them the hands-on experience to be the data- and tech-savvy professionals that are in such high demand.

“The University of New Hampshire at Manchester recognizes the importance of bringing accelerated computing to computer science and data analytics classrooms, providing students with new skills in exciting areas, such as deep learning and computer vision,” said Kimberly Powell, director of Higher Education at NVIDIA. “We look forward to working with UNH Manchester to prepare the next generation of accelerated computing pioneers.”

As a GPU Education Center, UNH Manchester will have access to NVIDIA GPU hardware and software, and NVIDIA parallel programming experts and resources, including educational webinars and an array of teaching materials. UNH Manchester students and faculty also receive access to free GPU programming training at nvidia.qwiklab.com. The comprehensive, self-paced training spans introductory to expert-level coursework on a range of GPU programming languages, applications, libraries, programming models and tools. GPU Education Centers were formerly known as CUDA Teaching Centers.