USGIF and NVIDIA Announce Winners of GPU Essay Challenge

Three winners selected at USGIF-accredited universities to receive Titan X GPUs

Herndon, Virginia (November 6, 2017)—In August, the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) partnered with USGIF member NVIDIA to offer an essay challenge to individuals attending and/or working at one of USGIF’s 14 accredited universities. Applicants from accredited schools were invited to write a four-page essay answering the challenge question: “If you were given dedicated access to an NVIDIA GPU-powered supercomputer, what problems could you solve?”

Three challenge winners were selected to receive two NVIDIA Titan Xp graphics processing units (GPUs) each.

The winners are:

• University of Southern California: Weiwei Duan
• University of South Carolina: Zhenlong Li, Huan Ning, and Cuizhen “Susan” Wang
• U.S. Military Academy at West Point: Chris Oxendine and William Wright

“All the applications were very professional and unveiled interesting ideas on how to use the GPUs in research and/or teaching,” said Dr. Camelia Kantor, USGIF’s Director of Academic Programs. “With such strong contenders for the award it was a difficult choice. The three winners stood out because they made a strong case for using the GPUs for the benefit of their students. Both NVIDIA and USGIF are committed to supporting educators and students in their efforts to accelerate innovation. This is just another example of how our educational system can benefit from external partnerships.”

NVIDIA GPU computing accelerates computationally intensive tasks and helps state-of-the-art technologies like artificial intelligence become reality. Today, computers can simulate human intelligence, run deep learning algorithms, enable robots, and power self-driving cars.

USGIF’s Collegiate Accreditation Program prepares students with the necessary knowledge and skills upon entering the professional geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) workforce. USGIF-accredited GEOINT programs include Fayetteville State University, George Mason University, James Madison University, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Northeastern University, Penn State University, the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Utah, the U.S. Air Force Academy, the University of Missouri, the University of Redlands, the University of South Carolina, the University of Southern California, and the U.S. Military Academy.

About USGIF

USGIF is a nonprofit educational foundation dedicated to promoting the geospatial intelligence tradecraft and developing a stronger GEOINT Community with government, industry, academia, professional organizations, and individuals who develop and apply geospatial intelligence to address national security challenges. USGIF achieves its mission via its strategic pillars: Build the Community | Advance the Tradecraft | Accelerate Innovation.

For more information, please visit www.USGIF.org and follow USGIF on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.