tl;dr: Dell provides the high performance computing solutions that power groundbreaking research at leading universities. This collaboration helps institutions drive progress in everything from AI and medicine to climate science.
At Dell Technologies, we provide transformative technology solutions for higher education—empowering students, faculty and researchers to turn bold ideas into real-world innovation. At SC’25, we’re highlighting how our collaboration with renowned universities within the Big Ten Conference is fueling incredible discoveries across many fields.
University of Washington: Accelerating AI with Tillicum
The University of Washington is making significant strides in AI, machine learning, and scientific simulation with its new Dell-powered computing platform, Tillicum. At the system’s core are Dell PowerEdge XE9680 servers with NVIDIA H200 SXM GPUs, built to handle the most demanding tasks.
Dell PowerEdge XE servers are purpose-built for AI and data-heavy workloads. They offer platforms optimized for acceleration with high core counts and flexible configurations. With this Dell AI infrastructure as its foundation, Tillicum provides scalable, high-throughput performance for time-sensitive projects, enabling researchers across disciplines to achieve more, faster.
Purdue University: Pushing Scientific Boundaries with Dell PowerEdge
Purdue University is expanding the frontiers of research with advanced AI infrastructure from Dell Technologies. Dell worked with Purdue’s Rosen Center for Advanced Computing and NVIDIA to design the Gautschi-AI cluster. This system uses Dell PowerEdge XE9680 servers with NVIDIA GPUs to deliver over 10.7 petaflops of peak performance for large-scale AI model training and data analysis.
This power is complemented by the Anvil supercomputer, one of the university’s most capable systems. Anvil delivers over one billion CPU core hours each year, supporting more than 12,000 researchers across 65 scientific fields. Its architecture, featuring Dell PowerEdge XE9640 servers and NVIDIA GPUs, is enabling breakthroughs in AI, astrophysics, climatology, and nanotechnology. This system also supports the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR), helping make high-performance AI computing accessible to more researchers.
The Ohio State University: Powering Research Through a Central Hub
Dell Technologies enables a foundational element of Ohio’s research infrastructure by supporting the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC), located near The Ohio State University in Columbus. OSC gives Ohio State students and faculty access to high performance computing clusters. Between expansions to their supercomputer, Ascend, and the new Cardinal cluster that came online in 2024, both built on PowerEdge servers, OSC has twice the cores, 1.5 times the GPUs and triple the performance compared to one year ago today.
These systems make advanced research possible in fields like climate science, biomedical engineering and artificial intelligence. With Dell’s reliable infrastructure, Ohio researchers can scale complex workloads and accelerate the pace of discovery across a wide range of disciplines, contributing to a better future for everyone.
Empowering Innovation at Every Step
Dell solutions are empowering universities, researchers and students to turn big ideas into lasting impact. Every breakthrough, every discovery and every success story is a testament to what’s possible when technology and imagination come together.
Ready to accelerate your research or learn more about our solutions for higher education? Visit our Higher Education hub or contact us to start the conversation. Let’s shape the future together.
