The School of Computing at the Australian National University (ANU) is set to reduce its energy costs by up to 51% following an agreement with DUG Technology (DUG).

With physical infrastructure in Western Australia, DUG will deliver high-performance computing (HPC) services, storage and training for staff and students in the School.

The deal is part of ANU’s commitment to reducing its greenhouse-gas emissions as part of the ANU Below Zero initiative. 

“Computing is a very energy-intensive activity, and partnering with companies like DUG help to support domestic providers to continue to innovate in this space,” School of Computing Deputy Director Professor Amanda Barnard said.

Previously HPC resources in the School were managed in-house by maintaining large server/machine rooms. The agreement with DUG represents not only a major shift in energy consumption by the school, but also a dramatic expansion in HPC resourcing available to staff and students, and immediate access to state-of-the-art facilities allowing for world-class teaching and leading research.

In the first two-year pilot stage of the project, the School will be using DUG’s HPC for courses taken by students enrolled in the Masters of Machine Learning and Computer Vision, as well as making it available to staff and Higher Degree Research (HDR) students in the School. Users will be able to log into the DUG infrastructure via a secure connection and use the space to undertake experiments and conduct research.

DUG Managing Director Dr Matthew Lamont said: “With our green HPC offerings, we are excited to play a role in turbocharging the University’s scientific endeavours and helping them achieve their sustainability goals.” 

The sustainability goal for ANU is to achieve below zero emissions by 2030 for energy, waste, work travel and direct on-campus greenhouse-gas emissions. By integrating practical emission reductions with research and teaching activities, ANU aims to drive innovation in this vital sector. It is one of the first universities in the world to adopt such ambitious targets including a below zero-emissions goal.

We look forward to working in partnership and collaboration with the School of Computing at ANU to accelerate the translation and commercialisation of their research.

With a strong focus on security, sovereign capabilities, green ESG footprint, dedicated HPC support and domain-specific expertise, we strive to ensure that universities and research organisations can focus on what matters most to them—the science.

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