Schrödinger's donation of servers: Empowering academic research and breakthroughs in partnership with Computing for Humanity

The donated Schrödinger servers, are temporarily being housed in a data center in Ohio. They will be deployed to partner research institutions and academic organizations across Canada and the United States to run new projects and complement existing ones.

One major challenge in academic research today is the unequal access to High-Performance Computing resources. When Schrödinger learned about Computing for Humanity’s (CFH) mission to repurpose end-of-life commercial servers, upgrade them, and donate them to researchers worldwide, they reached out to the founder of the Canadian charity, Roy Chartier. Their goal was to provide the non-profit organization with not only 108 servers, but also the potential for more discoveries in academic research.

According to the inventory, the group provided 108 Supermicro servers; 38 W/Nvidia GTX1080 / 32GB and 70 W/Nvidia GTX1080TI / 64GB with CPU 2620v4 each.

Schrödinger, is an international scientific software and biotechnology company specializing in enabling rapid and accurate discovery of high-quality, novel molecules for drug development and materials applications. Schrödinger’s recent donation of servers to Computing for Humanity reflects a shared vision of leveraging technology to drive positive societal impact.

The 108 donated servers will be used to upgrade gear in clusters already established in Canada and the United States. Additionally, they will be allocated to new academic research centers, fostering partnerships for various promising endeavors tackling complex challenges like climate change, disease analysis, and the intersection of technology and humanity, to name just a few.

“Schrödinger’s Corporate Sustainability strategy centers on VALUE2 , a business model that emphasizes commercial success while simultaneously advancing the needs of society. When we add value to the world, we create value for our company, and when we build value for ourselves, we generate value for the world. Furthermore, our social impact strategy prioritizes organizations within STEM education, healthcare, and technological innovation–areas where our colleagues’ knowledge and expertise can make the greatest contribution,” highlighted a communication drafted by the Corporate Sustainability Department from this international organization. “Computing for Humanity’s mission is well-aligned to Schrödinger’s Corporate Sustainability strategy, and we are happy to partner and support an organization that is working in the nexus of healthcare, innovation, and high-performance computing”.

"This donation of equipment demonstrates that companies are keen on advancing research and accelerating discoveries. It's the outcome of a virtuous equation," stated Elisabeth Sheppard, Executive Director of CFH. "Organizations like Schrödinger play a crucial role in enabling our work to progress."

For over four months, members from both organizations prepared the servers, organized the full inventory, and worked to figure out the logistical challenges of getting servers from New York to Ohio to a host location in a data center belonging to ThinkOn, a well-known Canadian/USA company. ThinkOn is a provider of cloud solutions that shares the perspective of empowering communities through digital solutions and has supported CFH since the beginning of its activities.

These new servers will provide additional resources to the researchers supported by CFH. The Corporate Sustainability Department at Schrödinger aims the same. “Not all academic labs and institutions are able to regularly update their high-performance computing resources, due to differences in funding and budgetary constraints. By donating equipment that is high-quality and functional, this is one way that companies are able to support academic researchers in advancing their initiatives.”