The new HPC data center of the University of Groningen (UG) on the Zernike Campus has been given the name 'Coenraad Bron Center'. The Board of the University has chosen this name from the entries of a competition and it was revealed on Friday 10 December by Anke Breeuwsma, the Technical Director of the Center for Information Technology (CIT). Prof. Coenraad Bron was the first professor of the Computing Science Department of the UG. The name Bron (‘source’ in Dutch) is also a symbolic reference to the data center as a source of information.

About Coenraad Bron

After studying Chemistry at Utrecht University, Coenraad Bron (1937-2006) started his scientific career in 1963 at Eindhoven University of Technology in the research group of computer scientist Edsger W. Dijkstra. There he came in contact with computer programming and was intensively involved in the development of the programming language Algol-68. In 1973 he continued his career at Twente University of Technology where he contributed to the development of the Modular Pascal language. On 1 September 1983, Bron was appointed as the first professor of the Department of Computing Science of the UG. The Computing Science programme had started the year before. Bron remained associated with the University of Groningen until his retirement in 2000.

Competition

The competition resulted in two winners who both suggested naming the new data center after Coenraad Bron. The prize winners are UG students Vincent Vrijburg (Computing Science) and Leon Wetzel (Communication and Information Sciences). They win a coupon for the university store I Shop.

Construction of the new HPC Data Center

The construction of the new High Performance Computing (HPC) data center on Grouwelerie 6 started in September last year and meets the growing need for reliable data storage and high-performance computing capacity. "By building this new data center, UG researchers and departments will be able to continue to use our cloud services and very high-quality computing power,”comments Anke Breeuwsma. “In this way, CIT will remain an expert in research data. Such an exceptionally strong infrastructure is also important because it allows us to collaborate on major groundbreaking research projects at an international level." The structural completion of the energy-efficient building was in September. In the upcoming period, the data center will be further equipped for the UG’s systems, so that it can be used for education and research in phases, starting in early 2022.

More information: www.rug.nl/groundbreakingwork