Shortly after starting my first semester at UWM I began to look online to see what research was done in the physics department. One professor and his research project immediately caught my interest. Professor Allen was leading a research group that used "super computers" to look for evidence of gravitational waves. While I had no idea what a gravitational wave was I remember being totally impressed that this type of research was taking place at my university.
In particular the group had built a 48 node cluster that used an operating system called linux. I did not know what linux was or even very much about computers in general, but I ended up spending most of my free time that next summer playing with linux on the computer my parents had just given me for christmas. When I heard that Prof. Allen and his collaborators were going to build a new beowulf cluster with "128 nodes" I knew I had to find a way of getting involved. Despite being a linux newbie I was able to make a small contribution to the building of what ended up as the 300 node medusa beowulf cluster. After the cluster was built I continued to work with the lsc group setting up and maintaining various servers.
Last summer Bruce asked me if I would like to work for him on a new project of his called Einstein@Home. After Bruce's sales pitch I was so excited I could barely sleep that night. The next day I accepted the job and immediately setup the very first Einstein@Home server.
Working on Einstein@Home has been a great experience mostly due to working with a smart and dedicated team of developers and some patient test users.
Now we just need to make it a success!
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