University of Florida supercomputer could bring high-tech efficiency to agriculture and medicine

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Inside an unassuming building at the University of Florida may be the loudest, largest, and perhaps the most powerful gator on campus.

It's a supercomputer for research called "HiPerGator."

"Massively more powerful than your laptop or your desktop. It stands for high-performance gator," explained Erik Deumens, Director of Research Computing at the University of Florida. "They can do calculations that would take months or years on your desktop or laptop and do them in a matter of hours or days. It's very efficient to do all kinds of interesting projects."

It's one of the top supercomputers in the world.

"HiPerGator is No. 38 on that list of 500 but if you look at all the educational computers and universities, university-owned and operated, HiPerGator is number one in the United States," said Deumens.

Although it's in Gainesville, HiPerGator is used by other state schools.

"All universities in the state of Florida are allowed to use HiPerGator under the same conditions with the same subsidized rates of purchasing time and access as the faculty at the University of Florida," Deumens explained. "That is benefiting all faculty and all students across the state."

HiPerGator has gone through some upgrades over the years, including the addition of artificial intelligence.

"So, when people graduate from the University of Florida they are knowledgeable citizens who know what AI can do, what it cannot do," said Deumens.

In the bigger picture, it could help Florida's agriculture.

"You can now have the AI process this in a matter of minutes, and then you can tell the next day to the farmer, 'Hey, there is a little corner of your field that is infected by something. You've got to do this and this to it,'" said Deumens.

And medicine.

"With AI and HiPerGator, you can get an answer very quickly, and you can come up with better treatments, quicker so that the patients have a much more successful visit," said Deumens.

It's a high-tech chomp on changing the future.

"It can help a lot of people," Deumens stated. "That makes me very excited and proud to be part of that."