Blue Gene supercomputer

Letter from Dr Andy Pratt, Prof. Leon Phillips, and Prof. Bryce Williamson to Professor Ian Shaw, Pro-VC, College of Science, U of C.

Dear Ian,

In the context of the ongoing financial crisis in the majority of the colleges at UC, and of the related College of Science frugality review, we are deeply concerned about the email that the Vice-Chancellor sent on Thursday regarding the purchase of a Blue Gene Supercomputer. We think that our concerns are relevant for the College of Science review and for wider issues of governance at the University.

• Firstly, a major justification for the purchase appeared to be that the acquisition of this machine somehow puts us in the same rank as top-level international universities such as Harvard and MIT. It does not: investment in academics and academic programmes is what distinguishes such top-level universities and we are being made manifestly aware that UC is not in a fiscal position to carry that out at even a basic level.
• Secondly, such a major infrastructural investment has been made with little consultation with the wider University community. As members of a university department that is touted in press reports as a possible end-user, we have no knowledge of any such consultation. Furthermore, it is clear that there are insufficient resources in Chemistry to fund the software licences that would be required for us to use the facility. What is the rationale for providing state-of-the-art computing facilities at a University without any effort to balance such provision against competing demands and when the resident academic programmes are too impoverished to make use of them?
• Thirdly, it is stated that this acquisition will not impact on other expenditure, but that is at least disingenuous. This purchase reflects a clear priority for expenditure. The contribution margin, which threatens to cripple the ability of the College of Science to carry out delivery of our core responsibilities, evidently is non-negotiable but the strategic financial reserves that are being built on this excessive taxation are available for the purchase of a specialized multi-million dollar computer.

At a time when the University had ample funds to resource its core teaching and research we would be delighted at the acquisition of such state-of-the-art technology. Against the present backdrop of financial strife for all of us who are actually delivering the core outputs of the university, the purchase of such an managerial status symbol sends yet another signal that the SMT have lost touch with the core business of the university.

How can we possibly be expected to agree to the cutting of core College of Science personnel and programmes to the bone in the face of this gratuitous excess?