Penn Advanced Research Computing Center (PARCC)
University of Pennsylvania· United StatesNVIDIA DGX SuperPOD · NVIDIA DGX B200 · NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand +1
Flexential and the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Advanced Research Computing Center (PARCC) launched a phased deployment of an NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD with DGX B200 systems and NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking, housed at Flexential's Philadelphia-Collegeville, Pennsylvania colocation data center, to support the university's next-generation research computing infrastructure. AHEAD, a longtime provider of enterprise IT services for Penn, handled off-site rack integration and on-site cabling.
Overview
Flexential and the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Advanced Research Computing Center (PARCC) launched a phased deployment of an NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD with DGX B200 systems and NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking, housed at Flexential's Philadelphia-Collegeville, Pennsylvania colocation data center, to support the university's next-generation research computing infrastructure. AHEAD, a longtime provider of enterprise IT services for Penn, handled off-site rack integration and on-site cabling.
The challenge
PARCC needed a partner that could offer capacity and operational maturity to manage a high-performance research computing deployment on an aggressive timeline, providing researchers with powerful, scalable infrastructure to support the university's expanding data and AI needs.
The solution
Flexential and Penn's PARCC launched a phased deployment of an NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD with DGX B200 systems and NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking, housed at Flexential's Collegeville, Pennsylvania colocation data center. NVIDIA Mission Control ensures streamlined workflows, agility and infrastructure resilience, enabling PARCC to serve all 12 of Penn's schools. AHEAD handled off-site rack integration and on-site cabling, delivering pre-configured racks built around the NVIDIA DGX B200 systems fully populated to minimize on-site setup time.
Reported business value
Phase I of PARCC's deployment doubles Penn's processing capacity, offering general high-performance computing capabilities for most users and a condo option for faculty who prefer to manage their own hardware. The deployment positions Penn at the forefront of AI research among Ivy League institutions and enables researchers to pursue AI advancements across healthcare, science, business and society.
Sources
Open any source and check the claim yourself — that is the point of the register.
This record was researched and written with AI assistance, and its claims were checked against the sources above. (EU AI Act art. 50 transparency notice.)
Other education entries in the register.
North Dakota University System builds a GenAI 'Policy Assistant' on Databricks for instant policy search
The North Dakota University System (NDUS) used the Databricks Data + AI Platform with Llama 2/DBRX, Foundation Model APIs, Unity Catalog and AI Search to build 'Policy Assistant,' a GenAI application that synthesizes over 3,000 public policy PDFs so staff can query regulations in plain English and get answers with page references and links in seconds instead of hours. The system cut NDUS's time to bring new data insights to market from one year to six months, 10-20x faster than manual policy search.
Open Universities Australia triples lead qualification with generative AI agents
Open Universities Australia (OUA) used LivePerson's AI Studio to build an LLM-powered generative AI agent that handles initial prospective-student inquiries, replicating the conversational style of human advisors. The agent achieved 3x lead qualification rates compared to self-searching students and 2x compared to OUA's prior scripted chatbot, with an average response time of 6.3 seconds versus roughly 2 minutes for human advisors.
Open Universities Australia· AustraliaLivePerson AI Studio
Ativion Powers Generative AI Classroom-Management Solution StudentKeeper with Amazon Nova
EdTech company Ativion built StudentKeeper, a generative AI classroom-management solution powered by its ARIA assistant, using Amazon Nova Pro and Amazon Nova Lite foundation models on Amazon Bedrock to filter content, calculate near real-time student attentiveness scores, flag safety concerns, and automatically draft teacher progress notes from the 200-400 million daily data events generated by its ContentKeeper filtering service.
Miami Dade College boosts student pass rates by 15% with Microsoft 365 Copilot
Miami Dade College deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot among its President's Cabinet and senior leaders, and used Microsoft Copilot Studio to build AI-powered assistants supporting personalized learning, coding exercises, essay structures and math problems around the clock. In the first semester of implementation in STEM and advanced analytics courses, the college saw a 15% increase in student pass rates and a 12% decrease in dropout rates. A survey found 77% of users completed tasks faster, 76% saw improved work quality, and 81% reported increased productivity; if just 15% of MDC's more than 6,000 employees saved 12 minutes a day, that would total nearly 50,000 hours a year. Encouraged by these results, MDC expanded its Copilot deployment by 400 licenses, prioritizing student-facing employees.
Miami Dade College· United StatesMicrosoft 365 Copilot · Microsoft Copilot Studio · Microsoft Teams +1
Was this helpful?
Your feedback helps us improve our use case database