Tech firm seeks help on project

A Liberty Lake technology company is asking area researchers to put on their thinking caps and identify really really big computer projects.

Liberty Lake Internet Exchange, a data center owned by Bernard Daines, has invited the researchers to gather and discuss projects that could be tackled by a clustered, parallel-computer network the company hopes to develop.

The researchers will meet Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the SIRTI building in a session jointly hosted with the Spokane Area Economic Development Council, Eastern Washington University and the Virtual Possibilities Network.

LLIX has announced plans to use its data center in conjunction with other shared computer resources to create the parallel cluster. This session, said EDC spokeswoman Robin Toth, is a step toward identifying whether the Spokane region has enough support and interest for the cluster to be developed.

Researchers across the map have been invited to submit proposals, said Toth. About 20 so far have responded.

Those involved are calling the effort the Applied Parallel Cluster Computing project. Its purpose is to use a large number of linked or parallel computer processors to tackle and manage huge computing tasks. Those would be similar to research and data-intensive tasks that five years ago only supercomputers could handle, said Toth.

With Eastern Washington’s medical facilities, several of the projects might involve data studies focused on developing new drugs or analyzing genome structures, said Toth.

After an initial survey of proposed computing projects, the LLIX group would look to find grant money to start the center.

Several grant sources are under consideration, added Toth. “They could be a Washington Technology Center grant, an SBIR (small business innovation research) grant or something else,” said Toth.

Reservations are required for those attending. For more information, call the EDC office, (509)742-9388. Facilitating the session will be EWU Computer Professor Steve Simmons.