High Performance Computing

Mission Statement

The High Performance Computing (HPC) Center at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) promotes advanced scientific computing in support of education, research, and Department of Defense (DoD) missions. The Center provides robust computational resources, user support, and expertise to faculty, students, and research staff, with the goal of establishing NPS as a nationally recognized HPC Center of Excellence.

Supercomputing at NPS

NPS has maintained on-campus supercomputing capabilities since 2009. The flagship system, Hamming, is named in honor of Richard Hamming, the internationally renowned mathematician and longtime NPS faculty member. Since its installation, Hamming has served as a core computational resource for NPS researchers and students who require large-scale parallel computing to address complex, data-intensive problems.

Rather than focusing on fixed hardware specifications, the HPC Center emphasizes capability: scalable compute, high-speed interconnects, and a software ecosystem designed to support modeling, simulation, data analytics, and emerging AI/ML workloads. The system is periodically refreshed and expanded to meet evolving research and instructional needs.

The presence of an on-campus supercomputing environment has been instrumental in attracting and retaining faculty whose teaching and research depend on access to advanced computational infrastructure.

Academic and  Research Benefits

The HPC environment at NPS supports both instruction and research across multiple departments. A wide range of specialized software packages (many impractical to run on desktop or laptop systems) are available to support graduate-level coursework and thesis research.

For example, commercial and open-source simulation tools are used in areas such as:

• Computational fluid dynamics and ship hydrodynamics
• Computer architecture and systems research
• Electrical and mechanical engineering simulations
• Applied mathematics and scientific computing

These resources enable students to work on realistic, mission-relevant problems aligned with DoD needs. Each year, numerous NPS courses integrate HPC usage directly into their curricula, and dozens of faculty-led research projects rely on HPC resources. Student theses frequently build upon this work, with topics spanning weather and climate modeling, polar ice prediction, rotorcraft simulation, large-scale data analysis, and advanced numerical methods.

Advanced GPU and AI Capabilities

In addition to traditional CPU-based high performance computing, the HPC Center is expanding its GPU and AI-focused capabilities. NPS maintains an NVIDIA Omniverse environment to support collaborative simulation, visualization, and digital twin workflows.

Looking forward, the Center is planning future deployment of next-generation GPU platforms, including an NVIDIA NVL72 GB300-class system, to support large-scale AI, machine learning, and accelerated computing workloads. These capabilities will further enhance NPS research in areas such as autonomy, modeling and simulation, data fusion, and advanced analytics.

ScienceDMZ and Data Sharing

To support data-intensive research and collaboration, NPS operates a dedicated ScienceDMZ architecture designed for high-performance, wide-area data movement. This environment is optimized for secure, high-throughput transfers between NPS and external research partners.

The ScienceDMZ integrates Globus services, enabling faculty and students to efficiently exchange large datasets with collaborators at other universities, national laboratories, and DoD organizations while maintaining appropriate security controls.

Learn More

For additional information on HPC usage at NPS, including active research projects, please visit the NPS Research Projects (login required). More technical details, user documentation, and access procedures are available through the Hamming website.