Exploring the Cosmos Through Computation: How URI’s Research Computing Fosters Discovery

Here at the University of Rhode Island, research computing isn’t just about high-performance computing (HPC) and powerful servers – it’s about enabling and fostering discovery. For Dr. Rob Coyne, Teaching Professor and a researcher, access to URI’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence & Computational Research (IACR) has been essential in advancing his work on some of the most extreme phenomena in the Universe: gamma-ray bursts and gravitational waves.

Cosmic Extremes
Much of Dr. Coyne’s research focuses on gamma-ray bursts – short, intense flashes of high-energy light that mark cataclysmic cosmic events such as neutron star mergers or the collapse of massive stars. He approaches these phenomena through the lens of multi-messenger astronomy, combining electromagnetic observations with gravitational-wave detections to probe questions about the nature of matter and the origins of heavy elements. “Gamma-ray bursts are like cosmic laboratories,” Dr. Coyne explains. “They let us explore the extremes of physics – everything from how gold and platinum are formed, to how neutron stars behave when they collide or collapse into black holes”.

From Theoretical Models to Data Pipelines
Much of Dr. Coyne’s work revolves around developing tools to analyze the data produced by gravitational wave observatories such as LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA. He leads efforts to build and advance pipelines that connect observational data to meaningful astrophysical observables, bridging theory and experiment.
“I’m mostly a gravitational-wave observationalist,” Dr. Coyne says. “A big part of what I do is pipeline development and data analysis. The cross-correlation algorithm I’ve worked on since my Ph.D. is a good example – it takes raw interferometer data, performs correlation analyses, and produces interpretable results.”
These computational pipelines rely on HPC resources to process large datasets. Here, URI’s IACR has been instrumental. Dr. Coyne credits the Institute’s support, in particular the Unity cluster and its staff, for helping him and his students to scale up their work.

Student Mentorship
Beyond enabling science, the Institute’s infrastructure has supported Dr. Coyne in mentoring students. “Getting students up to speed on HPC concepts can be overwhelming,” he says. “Every cluster is different – different schedulers, packages, and configurations. Having a dedicated support team makes all the difference.”
Dr. Coyne points to several success stories among his students. “My master’s student, Matthew Maini, was the first to get our post-merger pipeline running on Unity. That was a complex job, and the Research Computing team helped make it happen. Since then, even my freshmen have been able to dive into HPC early on, thanks to that support structure.”

Collaboration and Computational Challenges
Dr. Coyne’s research often involves collaboration across continents and across various platforms. Translating computational tools between systems like LIGO’s Condor and URI’s Slurm-based Unity cluster can be tedious. “Porting one environment to another is practically a full-time job,” he says. “Without the support of URI’s computing specialists, it simply wouldn’t be feasible.”
The institute’s team helps with everything from onboarding to debugging complex workflows, allowing scientists to focus on the actual science rather than the setup. “Whether it’s infrastructure, expertise, or just having someone you can call directly, the responsiveness here is exceptional,” Dr. Coyne notes.

Looking Ahead: Big Data
As gravitational-wave observatories grow more amplitude-sensitive and data volumes increase exponentially, Dr. Coyne sees URI’s research computing resources as a vital component to staying ahead. “The next decade will shift us from small, bespoke analyses to massive data challenges,” he says. “We’ll need to rethink everything-how we prioritize searches, how we handle data throughput, how we use AI for efficiency.”
Dr. Coyne is optimistic that URI will remain a partner in tackling these challenges. “When Cosmic Explorer and the next-generation detectors come online, we’ll be detecting almost every event that happens. That’s thrilling-but it’s also a computational challenge. URI’s support will be critical to meeting it.”

Advice to Faculty and Students
When asked what advice he’d give to others considering using URI’s computing resources, Dr. Coyne didn’t really hesitate and said: “Don’t be afraid.”
“These systems can seem intimidating at first, but there’s an incredible team ready to help. Nobody here has ever told me a project wasn’t worth their time. They always say, ‘That sounds great-let’s do it.’ That openness and collaboration have made all the difference.”
He adds that embracing computation isn’t just about convenience – it’s becoming essential. “You can’t do cutting-edge, competitive science today without engaging with these technologies. The sooner you dive in, the sooner you expand what’s possible.”

Through his work, Dr. Coyne shows the growing importance of combining physics, data science, and computation. As URI continues to expand its HPC capabilities, researchers like him continue to demonstrate how useful and powerful these resources can be – not only for answering questions about the Universe, but for inspiring the next generation to ask even bigger ones.

Interviewed by Nikola Bukowiecka
Physics Department, URI