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HPC Matters

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This marks the end of the second year of the ongoing SC HPC Matters program. This program is built on four pillars that represent how high-performance computing (HPC) "matters" by (1) improving quality of life; (2) building economies around the world; (3) accelerating science discovery and improving engineering, and (4) supporting education and learning.

The HPC Matters project features vignettes demonstrating the ways in which HPC is changing our lives through videos, social media, and presentations that occur during the year. This year the program has released six new videos with compelling stories about how HPC is contributing to improved therapies and understanding of disease processes for Alzheimer’s and epilepsy patients, is improving aircraft design, is expanding our understanding of climate change, and is making online commerce safer.

This evening, SC15 in Austin, TX (USA) will host a plenary session featuring Intel executive Diane Bryant who will discuss how next-generation supercomputers are transforming HPC, and presenting exciting opportunities to advance scientific research and discovery to deliver far-reaching impacts on society. Diane will be joined on stage by other Intel and industry leaders who will share their collective vision about the future of our field. If you are unable to attend this session in person you can watch it live online starting at 5:30 p.m. central standard time.

During the week, SC15 will also feature the impact showcase, a conference track which highlights 12 real-world applications of HPC by companies to advance their competitiveness and innovation in the global marketplace.

Finally, there are opportunities to engage the HPC community on social media with the HPC Matters hashtag #hpcmatters on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

We encourage you to learn from these exciting stories and pass on the message of why HPC Matters.  If you have compelling stories of your own, please share them.

Update: During the HPC Matters plenary last night, Bryant announced the ACM SIGHPC/Intel Computational and Data Science Fellowships, a commitment of $1.5M over five years designed to enable women and under-represented groups to pursue graduate degrees in comptuational and data science. The fellowships will be administered through SIGHPC and available to students attending a recognized graduate program in the targeted disciplines anywhere in the world. Although details are still being finalized, the goal is to announce the first fellowship winners next year during SC16. You can watch Bryant's keynote online here.

Wilfred Pinhold is CEO of Concurrent Systems LLC and an adjunct professor at Portland State University.

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