IIT Delhi Allocates Supercomputer Resources For COVID-19 Research To Merit-Based Proposals

With the wake of COVID-19 spread in the nation, The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi has decided to invite proposals from government and private academic institutions as well as private companies to use its supercomputer resource PADUM for COVID-19 research. 

According to their release, IIT Delhi is allocating its supercomputer resources for COVID-19 research in association with an academic partner from all over the country. In this, the allocation of supercomputer resources to merit-based proposals, according to the institute, will be made available for three months and a total of Rs 1 Cr worth of computational time will be provided to them with no cost. Each proposal will have a maximum cap of Rs 10 lakh worth of computational resource.

Speaking about this initiative by the institute, Prof V Ramgopal Rao, the director of IIT Delhi said, “In these difficult times, sharing of resources is important in order to address the infrastructure requirements of researchers working on the Corona epidemic. IIT Delhi has taken a principled stand and wishes to set an example for this. Scientists need to collaborate with each other, given the urgency of the situation.” He further stated that initially, it was located for three months, but now the allocation period can be extended to six months after evaluating the performance of the projects.

Also, in a recent LinkedIn post, Rao has shared the release stating - “IIT Delhi opens up its supercomputer facility for COVID researchers.”

The institute has urged researchers to submit their proposals by the 15th of this month, where experts from IIT Delhi will evaluate them on a first come first serve basis. Further explaining the process, the institute stated in their release that, after the election of the proposals, the chosen proposals would be provided with basic and limited support, which will include instructions on job submissions or smooth functioning of these projects. Details available here.

Along with that, IIT Delhi is also welcoming all researchers from India to use the supercomputer of the institute for COVID-19 research on a payment basis. It is further stated that “IIT Delhi will match to double the amount contributed for high-performance computing usage for COVID-19 research.”

In this payment basis mode, IIT Delhi is allocating a budget of Rs 5 crore worth of high-performance computational resources for the next six months.