The High‑Performance Computing for Applied Artificial Intelligence (HPC4AAI) project, funded under the code FKZ 13FH050KI1, ran from 1 August 2021 to 29 February 2024 at Hochschule Coburg in cooperation with the Regional Rechenzentrum Erlangen (RRZE). The initiative aimed to establish a university‑wide HPC infrastructure that would support teaching, research and technology transfer in artificial intelligence across five faculties and three campus sites. The project was carried out under a TV‑L E13 civil‑service position and involved a dedicated scientific staff member whose remuneration totaled €90 332.31 over the project period.
Technically, the HPC system comprises seven GPU nodes, each equipped with eight NVIDIA A100 80 GB GPUs, and eight Sapphire Rapid nodes, each containing 104 CPU cores. Two NVMe nodes provide high‑speed storage, and a total of 300 TB of persistent storage is available. The hardware was integrated and commissioned through a close partnership with RRZE’s National High‑Performance Computing Center, which facilitated efficient deployment and operation. The system delivers the computational capacity required for large‑scale machine‑learning workloads, generative‑AI experiments, and data‑intensive simulations. While the report does not provide explicit benchmark figures, the configuration of 56 A100 GPUs and 832 CPU cores places the cluster among the most powerful AI‑oriented resources available to a regional university.
The project’s operational model emphasizes low‑threshold access. Students and staff can request time‑limited access via an online form on the university intranet, and the system is managed through a ticket‑based support platform built on Zammad. Since its launch in March 2023, the support system has resolved several dozen requests for new registrations, extensions, and technical assistance. Training and rollout were supported by step‑by‑step video tutorials, written guides, and hands‑on workshops. A recorded session of the workshop was uploaded to Moodle, ensuring that participants who could not attend in person could still benefit from the material.
The HPC infrastructure has already enabled a range of AI projects. In addition to traditional scientific research, the system has been used by students in the Integrated Product Design program at the Faculty of Design to explore generative‑AI applications in product development. The project’s outreach includes presentations at the Bavarian HPC user community and planned participation in the Kompetenznetzwerk für Technisch‑Wissenschaftliches Hoch‑ und Höchstleistungsrechnen in Bayern, further extending the reach of the infrastructure.
Financially, the project incurred €984 606.00 in hardware procurement, with €806 106.00 spent in 2022 and €178 500.00 in 2023. Personnel costs were distributed as €22 513.43 in 2022, €58 705.10 in 2023, and €9 113.88 in 2024. Despite delays in personnel hiring and significant price increases for hardware, the project met its objectives, largely due to the productive collaboration with RRZE and the efficient use of the allocated TV‑L E13 position. The HPC system remains operational after project completion, providing sustained access for students, early‑career researchers, and external partners, thereby supporting the regional AI research strategy of Hochschule Coburg and fostering long‑term scientific output.