Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences
ICDS is Penn State's centralized research computing institute, operating the Roar HPC cluster (20+ PB storage, 285+ compute/GPU nodes) and five interdisciplinary research hubs to serve Penn State faculty, students, and postdocs with subsidized computational and data science resources.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2020
- HeadquartersUniversity Park, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences does
Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) is an interdisciplinary research institute operating under Penn State's Office of the Vice President for Research. Founded as a centralized hub for computational and data sciences, ICDS provides high-performance computing infrastructure and research support services exclusively to Penn State faculty, graduate students, postdocs, and interdisciplinary research teams across all university colleges and campuses.
The institute's core offering is the Roar HPC ecosystem, encompassing the Roar Collab cluster (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, Slurm scheduling, NVIDIA A100/V100/P100/A40 GPUs, Infiniband networking), the Roar Portal (Open OnDemand-powered web interface with Jupyter, RStudio, and VS Code), RISE consulting (computational scientists and software engineers), and over 20 PB of tiered storage (Home, Work, Scratch, Group, Archive). Five research hubs—AI, Quantum Sciences, Computational Sciences, Data Sciences, and Digital Twins—coordinate interdisciplinary research. Access models include free READ Credits (3 per month), pay-per-use compute credits ($3.11/credit), reserved allocations, and consulting services at $95/hour.
ICDS operates a non-commercial model funded by Penn State research budgets and grants. Pricing on the Roar platform is heavily subsidized to support internal research rather than generate market revenue. The institute runs funding programs (Faculty Upskilling Fellowship, Rising Researchers, Mid-Scale Seed Grants, Campus Digital Twin Seed Grants) and partnerships with Penn State institutes including Huck Institutes, the Center for AI and Mathematical Biology, and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute to drive computational adoption across disciplines.
Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences
- Legal name
- The Pennsylvania State University
- Website
- https://icds.psu.edu
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2020
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- ICDS is Penn State's centralized research computing institute, operating the Roar HPC cluster (20+ PB storage, 285+ compute/GPU nodes) and five interdisciplinary research hubs to serve Penn State faculty, students, and postdocs with subsidized computational and data science resources.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Research Computing / HPC Services
- NAICS
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182), Educational Support Services (61171)
- SIC
- Electronic Computers (3571), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Computer Storage Devices (3572)
- akta.pro primary industry
- High-Performance Computing (HPC) Cluster Nodes & Systems (HDACABAH)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- AI/HPC Converged Systems (Hybrid Training/Simulation) (HDACAOAD), HPC System Software & Resource Management (Schedulers, MPI, OS Images) (HDACAOAH), Research Computing & High-Performance Computing (HPC) User Support (EDALAMAK)
Keywords
Where Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- University Park
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- HPC Compute Access - Credits: Users can purchase compute credits to pay for batch jobs, interactive sessions, and Portal usage. Credits are consumed based on hardware type, core count, memory, and runtime. A single credit costs $3.11.
- HPC Compute Access - Allocations: Paid allocations provide immediate 24/7 access to reserved compute resources for 12 months or longer. Users pay fixed monthly rates for specific hardware configurations.
- Storage Services: Paid group storage (mounted on cluster) and archive storage available for purchase. Active Group storage at $4.36/TB/month, Archive storage at $1.20/TB/month.
- Professional Services: Roar Engineering and RISE/CIE consulting services at $95/hour for advanced support, software development, and implementation assistance.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Usage-based | Monthly | Basic CPU cores (4 GB/core) |
| Usage-based | Monthly | Standard CPU cores (8 GB/core) |
| Usage-based | Monthly | High Memory cores (20 GB/core) |
| Usage-based | Monthly | P100 Single GPU (12 GB) |
| Usage-based | Monthly | A100 Single GPU (40 GB) |
| Usage-based | Monthly | A100 GPU Half Card |
| Usage-based | Monthly | V100 GPU |
| Usage-based | Monthly | A40 GPU |
| Unit Pricing | Monthly | Active Group Storage |
| Unit Pricing | Monthly | Archive Storage |
| Freemium | Monthly | READ Credits (Free) |
| Other | Pay-as-you-go | Engineering/Consulting Services |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels6 records
Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences product offering
Product offeringCore offering
ICDS operates as an interdisciplinary research institute providing high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure and computational research support to Penn State faculty, researchers, students, and postdocs. Its core offering is the Roar HPC cluster ecosystem—including the Roar Collab cluster, Roar Portal (web-based Open OnDemand interface), GPU-accelerated nodes (A100, P100, V100, A40), and over 20 PB of storage—supplemented by RISE consulting services from computational scientists and software engineers.
Product overview
Penn State ICDS operates as a unified research institute offering high-performance computing infrastructure and research support services. The core product is the Roar HPC ecosystem, combining Roar Collab (the latest compute cluster), the Roar Portal (web interface via Open OnDemand), and RISE (consulting support). Access models include free READ Credits, Credit-Based Compute (pay-per-use), and Allocations (reserved resources). Storage services span Home, Work, Scratch, Group, and Archive tiers. Five Research Hubs (AI, Quantum Sciences, Data Sciences, Digital Twins, Computational Sciences) drive interdisciplinary collaboration, with support for containers (Apptainer), Python/R environments (Anaconda), and integrated development tools (Jupyter, RStudio, VS Code).
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Roar: The central computing facility for Penn State, operated by ICDS. Includes Roar Collab (high performance research computing cluster) and Roar Restricted supercomputers.
- RISE
- READ Credits
- ICDS Quantum Hub
- Rising Researchers
Products and services
- Roar HPC Cluster High-performance research computing cluster providing computational resources for Penn State researchers, including Basic, Standard, and High Memory CPU partitions, GPU nodes (A100, V100, P100, A40), and batch/interactive job scheduling via Slurm. Designed for computational science, AI/ML, and data-intensive research workloads.
- Roar Collab The newest ICDS-managed HPC cluster, designed for collaboration, featuring frequent software updates and hardware upgrades, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, batch schedulers (Slurm), compilers, MPI/OpenMP libraries, and GPU compute with multi-instance GPU support.
- RISE Consulting (Research Innovations with Scientists and Engineers) Team of ICDS computational scientists and software engineers who help researchers bring HPC capabilities to their projects, including software development, code optimization, parallel programming, GPU programming, and AI/ML consultation at $95/hour.
- Storage Services Over 20 PB of storage infrastructure including High Performance Storage and Archive capability, with Home (16 GB), Work (128 GB), Scratch (50 TB), Group (5 TB increments), and Archive tiers available in active and archival configurations.
Quantifiable outcome
- 3 free READ Credits per month for all account holders
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences
Customer profileNamed customers2 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration9 records
AI capability8 records
Feature5 records
Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- ICDS Quantum HubcoreQuantum Hub under ICDS focused on advancing quantum computing research. Hosts workshops and coordinates quantum machine learning initiatives across Penn State.
- Huck Institutes for the Life SciencescoreCollaborative partner for life sciences research events including the Quantum Machine Learning and Life Sciences Workshop. ICDS works with Huck Institutes on interdisciplinary research initiatives.
- Center for AI and Mathematical BiologycoreJoint initiatives in AI and mathematical biology research. The Center's director participates in ICDS workshops and coordinates research programs.
- Cocoziello Institute for Real Estate InnovationminorCo-sponsor of Campus Digital Twin Seed Grant Competition, offering up to $50,000 for faculty-led interdisciplinary teams working on digital twin projects.
- Penn State Clinical and Translational Science InstitutecorePartner in Penn State Inter-Campus Health and Medicine Research Program, supporting interdisciplinary health and medicine research across Penn State campuses.
- Penn State College of Medicine Center for Medical InnovationcoreCollaborates with ICDS on health and medicine research programs, bringing medical innovation focus to computational research initiatives.
- Penn State HarrisburgminorPartner in inter-campus health and medicine research, extending ICDS research capabilities to Penn State's Harrisburg campus.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC): University-based HPC center operating large GPU/CPU clusters (e.g., Frontera, Lonestar6) for academic researchers with a similar consulting and allocations model — directly comparable to ICDS' role at Penn State.
- Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC): Joint Carnegie Mellon–University of Pittsburgh HPC center providing GPU/CPU resources, allocations, and consulting to academic users — same university-consortium operating model as ICDS.
- MIT SuperCloud / Engaging Cluster: MIT's internal research computing platform offering HPC and AI compute to MIT faculty/students with a similar internal-subsidy and consulting model to ICDS Roar.
- National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA): University of Illinois–based HPC center operating large-scale GPU systems and user consulting for academic research — directly comparable in scope and services to ICDS.
- Stanford Research Computing / Sherlock: Stanford's university-wide HPC service providing shared GPU/CPU clusters and user support to its research community — direct institutional peer to ICDS.
- San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC): UC San Diego-based HPC center offering GPU clusters, storage, and user support to academic researchers — closely mirrors ICDS' university-anchored HPC and consulting services.
Broad incumbents
- NERSC (National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center): DOE national lab HPC facility providing large-scale GPU/CPU and storage for open-science research; comparable in capability, though federally rather than university funded.
- AWS HPC: Commercial cloud HPC service competing for grant-funded research workloads with elastic GPU capacity; adjacent competitor rather than direct institutional peer.
- ACCESS (formerly XSEDE): NSF-funded national cyberinfrastructure that allocates time across multiple US academic HPC centers — broader, federated counterpart to ICDS' single-university Roar.
Emerging players
- CoreWeave: GPU-focused cloud provider specializing in large-scale AI/HPC workloads; increasingly competing with academic HPC centers like Roar for grant-funded AI research.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights5 records
Customer concentration
Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences social profiles
Digital presencePenn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
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Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences
What does Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences do?
ICDS operates as an interdisciplinary research institute providing high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure and computational research support to Penn State faculty, researchers, students, and postdocs. Its core offering is the Roar HPC cluster ecosystem—including the Roar Collab cluster, Roar Portal (web-based Open OnDemand interface), GPU-accelerated nodes (A100, P100, V100, A40), and over 20 PB of storage—supplemented by RISE consulting services from computational scientists and software engineers.
Is Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences a public or private company?
Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences is a private company. It is classified as state government owned and is currently operating.
When was Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences founded?
Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences was founded in 2020. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences based?
Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences is headquartered in University Park, United States, in the North America region.
How does Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. HPC Compute Access - Credits are the primary driver. The others are HPC Compute Access - Allocations, storage Services and professional Services.
Who are Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), MIT SuperCloud / Engaging Cluster, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), Stanford Research Computing / Sherlock and San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC). Broad incumbents are NERSC (National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center), AWS HPC and ACCESS (formerly XSEDE). CoreWeave is listed as an emerging player.
Does Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences have an API?
No public API is recorded for Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences.
What industry is Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences in?
Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences's product category is Research Computing / HPC Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDACABAH, High-Performance Computing (HPC) Cluster Nodes & Systems, with a secondary code of HDACAOAD, AI/HPC Converged Systems (Hybrid Training/Simulation). Its NAICS code is 5415 and its SIC code is 3571.