Content about high-performance computing

eResearch NZ 2014 was recently held at Waikato University in Hamilton, New Zealand. This was the fifth year of the conference, which once again brought together a wide range of researchers and high-performance computing experts from across the country, as well as from further afield. 

Last week, iSGTW attended the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC’14) in Leipzig, Germany. The event featured a range of speakers representing a wide variety of research domains. Awards given by PRACE and Germany’s Gauss Centre for Supercomputing highlighted some of the outstanding research on show at the event. And, of course, the new TOP500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers was announced.

Nick Jones is the director of New Zealand eScience Infrastructure (NeSI), which provides high-performance computing and support systems to New Zealand’s researcher community. iSGTW speaks to Jones about the work that NeSI does and the upcoming eResearch NZ 2014 conference.

iSGTW is at the European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) Community Forum in Helsinki, Finland, from 19 to 23 May. Be sure to fiollow us on social media for updates from the event.

Pirjo-Leena Forsström, director of information infrastructure services at Finland’s IT Center for Science (CSC), will give a keynote speech at next month’s European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) Community Forum in Helsinki, Finland. iSGTW speaks to her ahead of the event to find out more about the work that she and her colleagues have been doing at CSC.

Manuel Peitsch, co-founder of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, will chair a session on high-performance computing in the life sciences at ISC’14 in Leipzig, Germany, in June. He tells iSGTW about the exciting advancements being made in this field.

Peitsch argues that bioinformatics — enabled by advances in high-performance computing — has a major role to play in tackling the grand challenges of the 21st century, such as environmental protection, energy supply, public health, and sustainable food production.

Karlheinz Meier, one of the three co-directors of Europe’s Human Brain Project, will deliver a keynote talk at this summer's ISC'14 event in Leipzig, Germany.

Funded by the European Commission, the Human Brain Project is an ambitious endeavor, with the intention of greatly advancing the understanding of the human brain using cutting-edge computer technologies.

Once fully operational, the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope could produce data at a rate more than 100 times greater than current global internet traffic. Successful handling of this unparalleled data deluge will be key to the project's ability to find answers to some of the most complex puzzles in astronomy.

For roughly two decades, scientists have struggled to understand the ratio of lithium isotopes found within the bellies of the oldest stars in the universe. Now, with the aid of high-performance computing, an international group of researchers has put this cosmic problem to rest.

Scientists from across the globe met in Switzerland last month for the launch of the Human Brain Project. However, building a computer to simulate the human brain is no easy task: in each cubic millimeter of brain tissue there are around 100,000 neurons, and each one makes contact with around 10,000 other neurons. Markus Diesmann, from Germany’s Jülich Research Centre, provides insight into the complexities surrounding this epic undertaking. He speaks about his work on simulating a circuit of the whole-brain network and discusses how specialized software can help represent the neurons and synapses of the full circuit.