High-powered computing: It’s not just for astrophysics anymore

Compute Canada just published a story about Voyant with the title, High-powered computing: It’s not just for astrophysics anymore.

Researchers in the humanities and social sciences are using digital infrastructure to help advance their research as well, and a Canadian-made tool called Voyant is allowing those who work with texts to do it with ease.

The story points out that Voyant may have more unique users than any other tool on Compute Canada, which is gratifying to read. This doesn’t mean more research is supported by Voyant, or more important research; comparisons are not really useful. What is more important is that the way humanists use infrastructure is different and being recognized. Humanists typically aren’t doing “big science.” They don’t need thousands of processors and batch interfaces. They want a more interactive and “always on” type of service. Compute Canada has listened and has been supporting our style/pace of infrastructure. Bravo!