Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang arrives for the inaugural AI Insight Forum in the Russell Building on Capitol Hill on September 13, 2023.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
Nvidia and the Georgia Institute of Technology announced Wednesday the first artificial intelligence supercomputer designed for students.
The chipmaker’s processing units, or GPUs, are at the heart of the large language models created by OpenAI, Alphabet, Meta and a growing number of heavily funded startups all fighting for a piece of the generative AI pie. Nvidia has seen its revenue skyrocket over the past year, and in February its market capitalization surpassed that of Amazon.
This highlights the importance of training the next generation workforce in AI.
Initially, only Georgia Tech undergraduates will be able to use the computing cluster, powered by Nvidia’s enterprise AI software and a “virtual gateway” developed by Penguin Solutions.
So far, students have only used the supercomputer in one course – Fundamentals of Machine Learning – since the start of the semester, but Georgia Tech plans to continue increasing its use. By spring 2025, all undergraduate and graduate students at Georgia Tech will have access, Arjit Raychowdhury, president of Georgia Tech’s school of electrical and computer engineering, told CNBC in an interview.
This news follows OpenAI’s decision in January to enter into its first partnership with a higher education institution. Arizona State University received full access to ChatGPT Enterprise in February and plans to use it for classes, tutoring, research and more.
Georgia Tech’s supercomputer runs on 20 Nvidia HGX H100 systems, which host 160 of Nvidia’s H100 GPUs, or graphics processing units, in high demand in the technology industry. For reference, it would take one second for one of those 160 GPUs to come up with a multiplication function that would take 50,000 students 22 years, according to a Georgia Tech release.
Students will use the supercomputer for course projects related to computer vision, large language models, robotics, supply chain management, chemical or biomedical engineering, creativity and design related to generative AI, as well as separate entrepreneurial ventures of their choosing, Raychowdhury said.
“The idea here is that we can get these computing resources in place…working closely with Nvidia and Penguin Solutions, and basically making a sandbox where students can do their own work,” Raychowdhury said to CNBC in a statement. interview.
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