Research-led teaching

Faculty of Information Technology students touring Monash Sungrid Facility at ITS Division’s main computer room located on Clayton Campus.

Monash Sungrid Facility was established through generous grants from Sun Microsystems and Alphawest in 2004 and supplemented by Monash E-Research funds. The facility forms the key Monash E-Research system which supports a number of high profile projects in climate modelling, genomic studies, pharmaceutical research, synchrotron science, policy studies, and grid computing. The facility has been extended with a large robotic data store funded through Australian Research Council research grants. The facility also acts as the central compute and data storage node for the DART project, funded by DEST Strategic Infrastructure Initiative for Australian Higher Education and VeRSI; a State Government initiative.

The Faculty of Information Technology, recognising the need for specialist skills required in operating such facilities, now offers a specific unit in Grid Computing aimed at developing a pool of graduates with a broad understanding of this growth area in information and communication technologies. The unit is delivered by Dr Asad Khan with inputs from Professor Bill Appelbe (CEO Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing Facilities) and Professor David Abramson.

Information Technology Services Division and the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash have played a key role in the establishment of this facility and continue to collaborate to enhance Monash research and foster research-led teaching.