AEROSPACE

The Council on Competitiveness issued the final report from the High Performance Computing Users Conference: Supercharging U.S. Innovation & Competitiveness, held in July 2004. The conference, which boasted more than two hundred high-level attendees from business, government and academia, was the first of its kind focused on the application of high performance computing (HPC) in the United States. "This report gives us a clearer picture of the state of HPC usage in the U.S.," noted Dr. David Shaw, Chairman, D.E. Shaw & Co. Inc. and Co-chair of the Council on Competitiveness HPC Advisory Committee. HPC Advisory Committee Co-Chair Dr. Karen Holbrook, President of The Ohio State University, added, "There is great potential for increased productivity, innovation and competitive advancement across the private sector if certain business and technical barriers can be successfully addressed." The HPC Users Conference Report outlines government, industry and academic views of these challenges and opportunities. The report also includes diverse examples of real-world business advances from the use of HPC, from designing sophisticated engines to solving the problem of disruptive air turbulence in the production of potato chips to creating amazingly lifelike images in the animation film industry. Major points from the report include: * HPC tools are considered indispensable by ninety-seven percent (97%) of businesses surveyed prior to the conference. * A range of competitive benefits can be achieved from HPC usage, such as accelerated product development cycles and reduced time to market. * Business obstacles, such as the inability to accurately quantify the return on investment in HPC, often inhibit more aggressive use. * Stronger partnerships are needed between government, industry and academia to address key technical and educational barriers, such as the need to update legacy software and grow the pool of computational scientists. "In today's globally competitive environment, this advanced technology is essential to business survival," said Deborah Wince-Smith, President of the Council on Competitiveness. "A country that wishes to out-compete in any market must also be able to out-compute its rivals." Copies of the report and a DVD of the entire event are available from the conference website, http://www.hpcusersconference.com/ . The DVD also contains all of the presentations, as well as other related materials. The Second Annual HPC Users Conference will be held on July 13, 2005 in Washington, DC. Information about the upcoming conference is also available at this same conference website.