High-Performance Big Data Computing Cluster
CeGIS has access to a high-performance big data computing cluster (supercomputer) named GeoRapider, serving as a testbed for geospatial big data analytics and computing intensive research and applications. GeoRapider consists of 15 computer servers with a total of 232 CPU cores, 864GB memory, and 200 TB of storage. This supercomputer is established by Dr. Zhenlong Li and housed in Sumwalt building at UofSC. It is maintained by the GIBD lab and UofSC Research Computing in the Division of Information Technology. The center is also equipped with Deep Learning Workstations powered by high-end NVIDIA Titan XP GPUs for geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) research and development.
sUAS technologies for near-surface 3D mapping
CeGIS has access to a number of drones and field instruments for supporting near-surface coastal mapping and research, including : 1) two Phantom 4 with payload of true-color cameras and one Matrice 100 with a multi- spectral sensor (RedEdge-M) for 3-D landscape surveys; 2) survey-grade (cm level) GNSS unit (Emlid Base+Rover bundle); 3) a handheld field Spectrometer (Ocean Insight) to collect field spectra in 350-1000nm and; 4) a 25-seat Pix4D software package for drone data analysis in our computer labs. Partner programs such as the ESRI-SC also maintain heavy lift drones (e.g., Matrice 600) for integrated projects.
GIS Software and Computer Labs
The Department of Geography at USC is among the top geography programs in the nation with strong GIScience research. CeGIS has access to the departmental resources, including two modern GIS computer labs with 70 high- end desktop computers equipped with the latest GIS, remote sensing, spatial analysis, computing and statistical software tools such as the ESRI and ERDAS suite of GIS packages and special-purpose software tools for hyperspectral remote sensing, LiDAR data processing, and visualization.
Geospatial Big Data Computing Platform
On top of our big data computing cluster, we developed a Geospatial Big Data computing platform powered by Hadoop, Spark and Impala with a set of innovative parallel processing algorithms, spatiotemporal indices, query analytical tools, and interactive web portals to efficiently manage, analyze and visualize tens of billions of geotagged tweets, terabytes of climate data, and other big data such as mobile location data, taxi trip data, and electronic health records. For example, using the platform, massive tweets can be queried, extracted, and visualized within seconds based on the criteria of spatial regions, keywords, time period, and spatial resolutions.
Conference Room
CeGIS is equipped with a modern conference room with a large TV display for video conferencing and presentations and an interactive big data visualization station.