I Touched a Supercomputer: My Trip to LBNL

When I saw the opportunity to tour Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL), I didn’t think twice—the name ‘Berkeley’ alone was enough to convince me, and it was also a chance to meet my friends from the ITS Engagement Committee.

From the start, the event was exceptionally well organized. Melissa from UCOP did a fantastic job coordinating everything, and Evren from LBNL was equally amazing, sharing all the necessary information and maps ahead of time.

Since it was my first time at Berkeley, I took BART and then the Berkeley shuttle. I almost got lost, but luckily, I bumped into my engagement committee teammates.

We were warmly welcomed by Evren and spent a few minutes in the waiting room while Shirley and Sushant shared their fond memories of studying at Berkeley.

Meeting Adam Stone

Our tour began with Adam Stone, CIO, in the conference room. He gave us a fascinating overview of LBNL, which was founded by Ernest Orlando Lawrence, the inventor of the cyclotron, a type of particle accelerator developed at the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Berkeley Lab

Adam highlighted LBNL’s key national user facilities, including:

Advanced Light Source (ALS): The “beating heart of the laboratory,” a synchrotron light source generating X-ray, infrared, and extreme ultraviolet light, supporting the research of thousands of users annually.
Joint Genome Institute (JGI): Supports DOE’s clean energy and environmental research.
Molecular Foundry: DOE-funded nanoscience research facility.
ESnet: The Energy Sciences Network, DOE’s dedicated science network.
National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC): Supports DOE-funded projects requiring high-performance computing (HPC).

Adam also shared his personal journey, the challenges he faces in his role, and some exciting ongoing projects, including a genome-based LLM.

Touring LBNL

Next, Bill Arndt, who holds a PhD in Computer Science, guided us through the tour.

Bill provided clear instructions before the tour, emphasizing safety and engagement.

We explored the Perlmutter system, installed in 2021 and scheduled to be decommissioned next year, to be replaced by Doudna, built on Dell Integrated Rack Scalable Systems and NVIDIA CPU-GPU platforms.

Key highlights of the tour included:

Learning how the facility in Shyh Wang Hall is seismically engineered.
Seeing the high-efficiency cooling system in action.
Observing the robots that move storage drives in and out of racks.
Opening a rack and even touching a supercomputer, which was a thrilling experience.

Bill also showed us the preparation underway for the new supercomputer and explained the significant costs and planning involved in adapting a space to accommodate such a system.

All our questions were answered, leaving us feeling privileged and inspired by the experience.

Evren walked us out of the building, and as we left, I realized it had truly been a special day—full of learning, inspiration, and connection with colleagues.

You can’t imagine how proud I felt just standing next to the photo of LBNL scientists who are Nobel Prize recipients—and how incredible it was to touch the supercomputer.

So, next time an opportunity like this comes along, take it—it’s truly worth it. And who knows, maybe the ALS will be my next stop!