Meilahti region bioinformatics meeting

Dr Pekka Manninen (CSC, the Finnish IT Center for Science) presents

High-performance computing: a no-nonsense path to progress

ABSTRACT:

Computing is the third pillar of scientific research, together with theory

and experimentation. With computational models, we are able to understand

phenomena that are too slow or too fast for a human to digest: we can

through computer simulation view the processes step by step; and tune that

step to one more suitable for the scales familiar to human mind. While

scientific computing can in principle be performed with almost any device

featuring a sufficient central processing unit, high-end supercomputer

systems are needed for improving our understanding of nature and reality

by developing and testing complex models and comparing them against

measured data. Indeed, even though computing is ubiquitous in science

today, it is high-performance computing that offers a promise of

breakthroughs in many major challenges that humankind faces today; such as

predicting how climate will change, finding new treatments to diseases,

design of green technology, and understanding the universe itself.

In this talk, I will review the expected benefits of near future

high-performance computing: the new and ambitious research questions it

enables to pose and the added value of such research. I will also describe

briefly the activities at CSC in the field of high-performance computing

and the related service portfolio.

You are cordially welcome!

Sampsa Hautaniemi