New advanced learning initiative boosts research capabilities, expands hands-on learning with AI tools, and improves campus connectivity
In this article
- Initiative enhances research capacity, expands applied learning, and strengthens the campus technology environment
- Expanded high-performance computing supports research excellence, experiential learning, and institutional resilience
- Modernized infrastructure enables faster discovery, broader access to advanced tools, and stronger campuswide connectivity
HOUSTON and Glassboro, N.J. – May 28, 2026 – HPE (NYSE: HPE) today announced an expanded partnership with Rowan University to accelerate research, strengthen student training, and support the university’s continued growth. Delivered in partnership with SHI International, one of the world’s leading technology solution providers, the initiative will enhance the performance and resilience of Rowan’s technology environment to enable faster insight, more hands-on learning, and a better-connected campus experience.
Ranked among the top 100 public research institutions nationally, New Jersey-based Rowan University has expanded its research portfolio in recent years with a focus on engineering, health care, biomedical sciences, and advanced manufacturing. This growth is increasing demand for scalable compute and data services, as well as reliable connectivity across classrooms, student housing, and research facilities.
Building on a more than 25-year relationship, the collaboration will help Rowan faculty and researchers work faster with large datasets, complex models, and advanced analytics, shortening time from hypothesis to result. Students will get hands-on experience with powerful supercomputing systems that power global research, along with enterprise platforms and AI tools used in coursework, research assistantships, internships, and class projects.
In close partnership with HPE and Rowan University, SHI worked with the University’s Information Resources & Technology (IRT) team to implement a colocation facility supporting a new data center, enhancing institutional resiliency in the event of a disaster. By aligning solutions across HPE’s networking, compute, storage, data center networking and HPC portfolios, and providing warehousing and deployment services, SHI enabled two data centers and a high-performance computing cluster.
Rowan University is deeply grateful to HPE and SHI for this extraordinary partnership. This initiative will accelerate innovation across disciplines and expand hands-on learning opportunities that help prepare our students to lead in an AI-driven world.
Ali A. Houshmand
Rowan University president
“Rowan University is deeply grateful to HPE and SHI for this extraordinary partnership,” said Rowan University president Ali A. Houshmand. “This initiative will accelerate innovation across disciplines and expand hands-on learning opportunities that help prepare our students to lead in an AI-driven world.”
Rowan selected HPE for the ability to deliver an integrated approach across infrastructure domains, backed by expertise to deploy and operate at scale. The expanded partnership is designed to deliver measurable outcomes for research productivity, teaching and learning, and campus connectivity. Rowan is shifting its campus networking platform to HPE Networking to support more consistent connectivity for students, faculty, and researchers, and to enable AI-enhanced network operations and insights that can improve reliability across campus.
The upgraded environment will help researchers run larger experiments and iterate faster across modelling and simulation, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and Internet of Things applications, among other areas. It is intended to support AI-driven research workflows, from data preparation and experimentation to model training and evaluation, while providing the scalable performance needed for data-intensive research.
This deployment helps Rowan move faster from ideas to results, giving researchers and students the dependable performance they need for data-intensive work.
Patrick Osborne
Senior vice president of technology acceleration for hybrid cloud at HPE
“This deployment helps Rowan move faster from ideas to results, giving researchers and students the dependable performance they need for data-intensive work,” said Patrick Osborne, senior vice president of technology acceleration for hybrid cloud at HPE. “By bringing together the right mix of infrastructure capabilities, Rowan can support more teams, more projects, and more experiential learning at scale.”
With the full-stack HPE solution, Rowan will expand capacity and improve service levels across storage, compute, high-performance computing, and networking.
- HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 and HPE Zerto Software to support data availability and recovery
- HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen11 GPU and HPE Synergy 480 Gen12 compute to support teaching, research, and shared services
- HPE high-performance storage solution to support large-scale modeling and analytics
- HPE Aruba Networking to strengthen campus connectivity
"Universities demand more from their IT environments than ever before, from supporting research at supercomputing scale to giving students hands-on experience with the same enterprise tools they'll use after graduation," said Denise Collison, senior vice president of Public Sector at SHI. "We have built an environment that works as one system, not a collection of separate upgrades. Rowan's researchers and students now have a technology foundation that supports current and future needs."
The expanded partnership reflects HPE’s continued commitment to helping higher education institutions modernize infrastructure, accelerate discovery, and prepare the next generation of talent with real-world technology experience.