The Genesis of the WAVE Project
A generous grant of $639,000 from the E. L. Wiegand Foundation in 2018 enabled Santa Clara University to launch its first high-performance computing cluster and a new Wiegand Advanced Visualization Environment (WAVE). These next-generation research and teaching technologies came at a critical inflection point for SCU, as computation technologies matured rapidly, an emerging generation of faculty across a wide variety of disciplines utilized computationally intensive methods, and an explosion of student interest in STEM fields increased computing enrollments by as much as 400% in a single decade. Responding to campus-wide demand for infrastructure and support, the University envisioned a new hub for interdisciplinary projects that converged computational power with immersive 3-D visualization capabilities. This grant allowed SCU to move beyond a patchwork of small, department-specific systems and catalyzed its first centralized, high-performance computational resource.
Building the Initial HPC Cluster
The Wiegand Foundation’s investment funded the acquisition of the core hardware that defined the first phase of the WAVE HPC Center. Following a refined implementation plan in 2019, the University installed a robust "massively parallel" compute cluster consisting of 10 high-performance compute and GPU nodes. This initial system was designed to handle processing-intensive jobs—such as Monte Carlo simulations, climate modeling, and artificial intelligence algorithms—reducing processing times from weeks to mere hours. In addition to supporting intensive faculty research projects, the volume of GPU capacity also enabled a new generation of undergraduate and graduate courses to expose students to computational problems and prepare them for active use of industry-standard HPC environments.
To manage this resource, the grant provided for a specialized virtualized system to run critical HPC software, including head nodes and login nodes for user authentication. The infrastructure was further bolstered by a storage system featuring several hundred terabytes of space, alongside a 10G interconnect to ensure high-speed data transfer across the network.
The Visualization Lab and Workstations
Beyond the back-end servers, the E. L. Wiegand Foundation enabled the creation of a dedicated visualization lab to help researchers evaluate and communicate complex data. The grant funded twelve GPU-enabled Dell Precision workstations, each paired with 32" ultra-high-resolution 4K monitors to support data analysis, illustration, and the development of AR/VR content. For immersive research, the Foundation provided cutting-edge equipment including HTC Pro Eye virtual reality headsets with integrated eye-tracking capabilities, which are essential for studies involving human visual engagement. The lab was also equipped with a large-scale 82" 4K TV monitor, allowing classes and research teams to view massive data visualizations in a collaborative setting.
Implementation and Legacy
The first phase of the WAVE hardware was successfully installed and optimized throughout 2019, becoming fully operational for the start of the Winter 2020 academic term. Originally incubated in a temporary 400-square-foot facility in Varsi Hall, this equipment served as the prototype for the "convergence" model that would eventually define the University’s approach to interdisciplinary STEM research. Today, the hardware provided by the E. L. Wiegand Foundation remains the bedrock of our computational infrastructure, supporting groundbreaking faculty research and student co-authored publications as we have continued to augment SCU’s HPC resources.