Upgrading the Laboratory for Computational Astrophysics

• Grant number: 10/52175-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: December 01, 2010
• End date: November 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Computer Science - Computational Mathematics
• Principal Investigator: Carmen Maria Andreazza
• Grantee: Carmen Maria Andreazza
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas (IGCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present proposal aims to equip with four new personal computers our Laboratory for Computational Astrophysics - hosted in the Department of Statistics, Applied Mathematics and Computing (DEMAC), UNESP, Rio Claro. Currently the laboratory has in operation a workstation HP Tru64, former Digital Workstation 600au and two Pentium II. The machines in operation are insufficient to meet the current demands of the activities of our research group, consisting of two professors, Dr. Carmen Maria Andreazza and Dr. Eraldo Pereira Marinho, a graduate student in Master's Degree in Physics, Demetrius Ceccatto Tadeu, and three undergraduate students, Vinícius M. Gomes da Cruz and Karina Karen de Oliveira Souza, regularly enrolled in the course of Physics, and Martha Dais Ferreira, regularly enrolled in the curse of Bachelor of Computer Science. Our current research activities involve the well-known computer simulation model, SPH (smoothed particle hydrodynamics), and computer simulations of the chemistry of the interestelar medium, which require machines with microprocessors with two or more processing cores, e.g. Intel Quad Core Q8400. Concomitantly, our need-oriented computing environment to develop their programming activities, publishing and literature searches on the Internet. There are no computational resources of common use in our department, except for shared printers and WiFi routers. Instead of acquiring common use personal computers, the Department has encouraged research groups to equip themselves with equipments obtained from grants such as those sponsored by FAPESP. (AU)