NCAR‐Wyoming Supercomputing Center
Overview
Reich&Petch designed a new visitor center for this world-class supercomputing center, assisting this technological marvel to communicate their research and innovations to the public.
Details
- Client
- National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
- Project
- NCAR‐Wyoming Supercomputing Center
- Size
- 4,200 sq. ft.
- Project Delivery
- Design-Build
- Scope
- Exhibit Design - Science
- Location
- Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA
- Year Completed
- 2023
The
Goal
Studying Earth Systems – weather patterns, solar flares, earthquakes, climate change and more – is an incredibly complex field requiring ingenuity, deep research, and a formidable amount of computerized data processing. The new supercomputer housed in NCAR is one of the best in the world for the job. Already well known within the scientific community, this updated visitor center will bring their impressive achievements in computing and understanding the world we share to the Center’s communities, visitors, and prospective future scientists.
The
Design
Working with the fabricator Color-Ad as a design-build team, R&P designed new exhibits that provide an inspired point of connection between NCAR’s new supercomputer and the communities it will serve. In a bright and open atrium, interpretive panels, parts of machinery, and AV screens tell the story of the work happening in the Center. Visitors explore data visualizations, and interactives that demonstrate how data are fed into the supercomputer and processed. Stylized and unified panels evoke the sophistication of immense computers as well as the mind-boggling complexity of the natural world.
The
Result
The Center’s mandate is to increase an understanding of a range of phenomena that impact society, such as solar storms, seismic activity, renewable energy, pollution, climate change, and their influences on economic and social systems. The massive complexity of the supercomputer, performing 19.87 quadrillion calculations per second, is demystified, and the role of data to the advancement of science as a whole is highlighted. With this new point of connection with the community, this crucial work becomes more visible to those it serves.
