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FollowFinal Girder Tops Computational Research and Theory Facility
Ceremony Marks the End of First Phase of Construction
December 6, 2013
By Margie Wylie
Steelworkers attach the final or "top" beam of the Computational Research and Theory building. (Photo: Margie Wylie, Berkeley Lab)
The final steel girder of the Computational Research and Theory facility was hoisted into place today in a “topping off” ceremony.
As tradition dictates, the beam was decorated with an evergreen and an American flag and the beam was signed by both the builders and some of the eventual occupants, including Kathy Yelick, Associate Lab Director for Computing Sciences, and division directors Sudip Dosanjh (NERSC), David Brown (Computational Research), and Greg Bell (Scientific Networking).
Kathy Yelick, associate lab director for Computing Sciences, signs the final girder. (Photo: Margie Wylie, Berkeley Lab)
Some wags included messages with their signatures. “Computer goes here,” wrote NERSC’s Shane Cannon with an arrow pointing down. David Skinner, also of NERSC, added, “MPI_FINALIZE,” an inside joke for supercomputer programmers.
Topping off—the roots of which are old but obscure—marks the beginning of the end for the heavy construction phase carried out by the “raising crew.”
When construction is complete in early 2015, the CRT facility will house all three divisions of Berkeley Lab’s Computing Sciences and NERSC’s supercomputers in a state-of-the-art data center.
Construction crew and guests shared a dinner after the ceremony, also a custom of the building rite.
About NERSC and Berkeley Lab
The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility that serves as the primary high performance computing center for scientific research sponsored by the Office of Science. Located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, NERSC serves almost 10,000 scientists at national laboratories and universities researching a wide range of problems in climate, fusion energy, materials science, physics, chemistry, computational biology, and other disciplines. Berkeley Lab is a DOE national laboratory located in Berkeley, California. It conducts unclassified scientific research and is managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy. »Learn more about computing sciences at Berkeley Lab.
