Our team is excited to use UF’s HiPerGator supercomputer for AI model training. For some of us, it’s our first experience with a supercomputer, so we’re proactively learning how to use it. The simulation we chose as our foundation previously trained an agent for a month on a 32-core machine with a GTX 3090 GPU. While that setup is better than a typical office computer, HiPerGator has us eager to get to training our model.

Why HiPerGator?

HiPerGator, one of the world’s top academic supercomputers, supports UF’s innovative AI research with 70,320 cores, 608 high-end GPUs, and 4 Petabytes of Blue storage. Since Catan is centered on strategy, resource management, and negotiation, having access to a powerful system will let us refine game-winning tactics much more efficiently. We hope to create an AI model that performs exceptionally well and adapts strategically to unique game scenarios with HiPerGator’s AI-optimized architecture.

Using HiPerGator isn’t the only thing we’re excited about. On October 17th, we’re planning a site visit to CAE’s Tampa office to explore their simulators, present our project’s progress, and finally meet our liaison in person. We’re preparing for a productive day trip and are currently getting everything approved and finalized.

In addition to the trip, we’ve recently purchased Catan and an expansion pack to play together as a team. It’s our hands-on approach to familiarize ourselves with the game’s rules, strategies, and dynamics. We think it’s a great way to combine research with team building. Game night and bonding? Say less.