Each day, Penn State’s supercomputer works to help our world-renowned researchers investigate everything from the vast reaches of outer space to the inside workings of a atoms.

But what it’s missing now is a great name — that’s where you come in.

We want you to help us pick a new moniker in the Name Penn State’s Supercomputer contest.

Wait—Penn State has a supercomputer?

That’s right!

In 2012, Penn State dedicated $60 million to support the development and maintenance of cutting-edge supercomputing — also known as high-performance computing — infrastructure. That’s when our organization, the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (then called the Institute for CyberScience), was formed. Today, we help maintain and chart future upgrades for this supercomputing system, as part of our mission to support computational and data science throughout Penn State.

Why is the name being changed?

In late 2019, our institute changed its name to the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences to be better aligned with the types of research we support at Penn State. Going along with this name change, we decided to rename our supercomputing system that is used by thousands of Penn State researchers each year.

The name now—Institute for Computational and Data Sciences Advanced Infrastructure, or ICDS-ACI—describes the system and who uses it, but we know there’s a better name out there. Some of our favorite supercomputer names are Summit and Sierra, the two fastest supercomputers in the world, located in U.S. national laboratories.

When will the name be decided?

Here are important dates for our naming contest:

Feb. 9: Deadline to suggest names

Feb. 23: ICDS will release a list of our favorite names for a public vote. While we appreciate the humor of names like Boaty McBoatface, we feel that a more serious name will better suit the way our supercomputer impacts the research community.

March 8: Public voting closes

March 17: The new name is announced at the ICDS Symposium

Vote now to help decide the new name!

Our favorite choices were:

Keystone

Catamount

Atherton

Canopy

ROAR

Nittany

Excelsior

Which do you like best? Tell us by voting now:

Vote Now