University of Florida builds NaviGator AI platform on HiPerGator supercomputer using NVIDIA NIM and Nemotron

Overview

The University of Florida uses its HiPerGator supercomputer with NVIDIA NIM microservices and Llama NIM to power NaviGator, a suite of self-service AI tools including chatbots and a toolkit giving students, faculty, and staff access to proprietary and open-source models. The platform is a hybrid service combining on-premises HiPerGator infrastructure with AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure, built for cost predictability, data privacy, and on-premises control of sensitive research and student PII data. Key takeaways include nearly 24,000 unique users for NaviGator Chat, 1,500+ unique uses of NaviGator ToolKit (52% from university staff), and 20 LLMs available in NaviGator.

The challenge

As AI transforms university campuses, institutions need to give students, faculty, and staff access to AI capabilities while controlling costs, avoiding vendor lock-in, and protecting sensitive research data and student personally identifiable information (PII).

The solution

The University of Florida built NaviGator, a suite of self-service AI tools including chatbots and a toolkit, using its HiPerGator supercomputer with NVIDIA NIM microservices and Llama NIM to efficiently serve and scale models like NVIDIA Nemotron. NaviGator is a hybrid service combining on-premises HiPerGator infrastructure with access to AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure, and is centrally administered by the university's IT department to control costs and avoid lock-in to any single AI solution.

Reported business value

NaviGator Chat has nearly 24,000 unique users, the NaviGator ToolKit has had 1,500+ unique uses (52% from university staff), and 20 LLMs are available in NaviGator. Central administration has allowed the university to control costs and produce cost savings shared across the institution.