Srinidhi Varadarajan
Encyclopedia
Srinidhi Varadarajan is the director of the Terascale Computing Facility and an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. He joined the Department of Computer Science in August 1999. His research interests are in the area of high performance computer systems. In particular, fault tolerance in large-scale distributed systems, network emulation, network routing algorithms, compiler directed frameworks and parallel simulation algorithms. He currently heads the Computing Systems Research Laboratory and serves as a core faculty in the Laboratory for Advanced Scientific Computing and Applications. He is also the architect of System X
, one of the world's fastest and least expensive supercomputers.
The number one supercomputer, Japan’s Earth Simulator, was estimated to cost between $250 and $350 million, and the Department of Energy’s ASCI-Q, a dedicated weapons facility in the number two slot, had an estimated construction cost of $215 million. When System X was rated number three, Varadarajan had accomplished his goal for a mere $5.2 million, an unbelievable price in the field of high-performance supercomputing. This low cost represents a paradigm shift in supercomputing; it means that based on Varadarajan’s work, other major research universities and enterprises can build their own supercomputer.
Dr. Varadarajan is the recipient of the ComputerWorld
Honors Award in the Science Category 2004, a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation
, the Egg Factory Technology Innovation award and a Faculty Fellow award from the College of Engineering, Virginia Tech.
In 2004, he was named to the MIT
Technology Review
TR100
as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
He graduated in 1994. He received his bachelors degree from NIT Warangal.
He listens to Indian classical music, both Hindustani and Carnatic. Ravi Shankar's compositions are his favorite, particularly his series with the London Philharmonic. Other favorites include Asad Ali Khan - Rudra Veena, Shiv kumar Sharma - Santoor, N. Rajam, Kunnaikudi Vaidyanathan - violin, and Zakir Hussein and Alla Rakha on the tabla. Among vocalists, he listens to Bhimsen Joshi, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Balamurali Krishnan and Maharajapuram Santhanam. In light music, he prefers old Hindi songs from the 1950s to the 70's, and classic rock - Doors, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Queen and Led Zeppelin.
Other hobbies include flying and home-brew electronics, particularly microprocessor kits, and discrete solid state amplifiers.
System X (computing)
System X is a supercomputer assembled by Virginia Tech's Advanced Research Computing facility in the summer of 2003 that was originally composed of 1,100 Apple Power Mac G5 computers. System X ran at 12.25 Teraflops, , and was ranked #3 on November 16, 2003 and #280 in the July 2008 edition of...
, one of the world's fastest and least expensive supercomputers.
Achievements & Awards
He was the lead designer of Virginia Tech’s supercomputer, System X, ranked in November 2003 as the fastest supercomputer at any University in the world. He conceived the idea to use off-the-shelf commercial products to design a supercomputer and built his system in a little less than three months. He targeted price/performance since he did not have the hundreds of millions of dollars available to him that it took to build the world's current top two supercomputers.The number one supercomputer, Japan’s Earth Simulator, was estimated to cost between $250 and $350 million, and the Department of Energy’s ASCI-Q, a dedicated weapons facility in the number two slot, had an estimated construction cost of $215 million. When System X was rated number three, Varadarajan had accomplished his goal for a mere $5.2 million, an unbelievable price in the field of high-performance supercomputing. This low cost represents a paradigm shift in supercomputing; it means that based on Varadarajan’s work, other major research universities and enterprises can build their own supercomputer.
Dr. Varadarajan is the recipient of the ComputerWorld
Computerworld
Computerworld is an IT magazine that provides information for senior IT leaders. It is published in many countries around the world under the same or similar names. Its publisher is International Data Group. Computerworld serves the needs of IT management via print and online...
Honors Award in the Science Category 2004, a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
, the Egg Factory Technology Innovation award and a Faculty Fellow award from the College of Engineering, Virginia Tech.
In 2004, he was named to the MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
Technology Review
Technology Review
Technology Review is a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as "The Technology Review", and was re-launched without the "The" in its name on April 23, 1998 under then publisher R. Bruce Journey...
TR100
TR35
The TR35 is an annual list published by MIT Technology Review magazine, naming the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35.Some of the most famous winners of the award include Larry Page and Sergey Brin , Linus Torvalds , Jerry Yang , Jonathan Ive , Mark Zuckerberg...
as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
He graduated in 1994. He received his bachelors degree from NIT Warangal.
Personal life
His reading interests are in the, natural sciences - mainly physics, philosophy, international politics/foreign policy and evolutionary biology. In fiction, he likes the classics of which he has a collection of reprints of first editions.He listens to Indian classical music, both Hindustani and Carnatic. Ravi Shankar's compositions are his favorite, particularly his series with the London Philharmonic. Other favorites include Asad Ali Khan - Rudra Veena, Shiv kumar Sharma - Santoor, N. Rajam, Kunnaikudi Vaidyanathan - violin, and Zakir Hussein and Alla Rakha on the tabla. Among vocalists, he listens to Bhimsen Joshi, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Balamurali Krishnan and Maharajapuram Santhanam. In light music, he prefers old Hindi songs from the 1950s to the 70's, and classic rock - Doors, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Queen and Led Zeppelin.
Other hobbies include flying and home-brew electronics, particularly microprocessor kits, and discrete solid state amplifiers.
"I still swear by the fidelity of a high power transistor driving a decent pair of Maggies - I use the larger 20.1s and they sound great. One of these days maybe I'll get around to seeing why the audiophiles keep raving about vacuum tubes :-)."