The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) has announced a new program with the Milwaukee Institute that gives Wisconsin businesses access to a high-performance supercomputer.
The Milwaukee Institute, a nonprofit, has received matching grants of $250,000 each from the WEDC and Milwaukee-based Mason Wells, a private equity management firm, to fund the one-year program, a public-private initiative.
The Institute will use the funding to expand the availability of high-performance computing systems and services for small- and medium-sized businesses in Wisconsin.
“Now – more than ever – it’s crucial that Wisconsin businesses begin to employ advanced technology, including computational science and specialized high-performance computing systems and services, in order to innovate in a rapidly changing and increasingly competitive environment,” said Gov. Scott Walker. “Major companies and institutions, including Rockwell Automation and the Medical College of Wisconsin, now recognize the value of utilizing such resources and are already working with the Milwaukee Institute. This new program will encourage and enable smaller businesses to gain the benefits of access to the institute’s computing network – and will provide them with the technical support needed to use that network to spur innovation.”
“This is great news for companies and organizations that want to begin utilizing these specialized computing services, but otherwise wouldn’t have the resources or necessary training to do so,” said Reed Hall, secretary and CEO of WEDC. “This program – along with other advanced technology efforts supported by WEDC – will have a long-term positive impact on job growth and the state’s overall economy.”
“We are pleased to partner with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and Mason Wells to offer the Institute’s systems and services to assist innovative organizations in creating new or upgrading legacy products and services requiring access to modern modeling, simulation, visualization and analytics capabilities,” said Dr. Jay Bayne, founder and executive director of the Milwaukee Institute. “In the process, we expect to see improvements in the efficiency of engineering, research and development processes and the emergence of a new class of computational and data scientists.”
Companies can apply for grants of up to $50,000 to access the Institute’s specialized high capacity computing and storage network called the MGrid. Grants will be awarded to a minimum of five companies.
The Milwaukee Institute will provide the funding to companies through a new Computational Science Challenge Grant Program. The grant Request for Proposal is available for download at www.mkei.org/rfp.
