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Postgraduate Facilities & Resources

As would be expected of a leading university, the ANU has excellent facilities and resources that support its research and teaching activities.

The ANU offers a world-class computing environment that is unequalled in Australia. This includes a GigaFLOPS VPP300 supercomputer (Australia's largest civilian computer), a 200-node Beowulf cluster, a 20-processor Silicon Graphics Power Challenge, a 128-processor Fujitsu cellular Array Processor (AP1000) and a StorageTek mass storage device capable of holding more than 40 Terabytes of data, connected by a 100Mbps FDDI ring. There is also a large array of other computers from mainframes to professional workstations.

Direct real-time communication with thousands of sites worldwide is available, including access to a variety of experimental machines at the Advanced Computer Research Facility at the Argonne National Laboratory, USA.

Researchers and students also have access to a WEDGE virtual reality theatre where many participants can view a 3D interactive image that floats in front of them. WEDGE theatres are valuable tools that help people to visualise data from experiments - basically putting them in the picture.

There is a fully equipped manufacturing and materials laboratory with autoclave and pre-programmed and instrumented machines. There is also an opto-electronic devices laboratory for PV manufacturing and testing.

In addition to having advanced robotics laboratories, the ANU is also the lead institution in a consortium that won a national grant to establish a National Field Robotics Facility in the ACT. Students and researchers conduct experiments with a range of robot systems, including autonomous robots, at the facility.

The Big Dish is a 400 square metre paraboloidal dish that tracks the Sun, superheating steam to generate electricity. Researchers who use this facility are engaged in various partnerships with industry and government in the search for creating sustainable energy systems that will help to protect the Earth's finite resources.