INDUSTRY

From airplanes to Shrek, to automobiles to Pringles, industry representatives from across the nation came together to discuss the critical importance of high performance computing to the design, development, and efficient manufacturing of globally competitive products. Over 200 top-level executives convened yesterday at the First Annual High Performance Users Conference to discuss the future impact of HPC on competitiveness. With technology, talent and capital now available globally, the U.S is facing unprecedented economic competition from abroad. "The country that wants to out compete must out-compute," stated Deborah Wince-Smith, President of the Council on Competitiveness. "This conference has been a unique opportunity for the best minds in government, academia and industry to identify the barriers preventing more widespread use of high performance computing across the private sector, and to work for solutions to ensure that this 'must have' tool set is more readily available to ensure industrial success in global markets." Dr. Paul Horn, Senior Vice President for Research, IBM kicked off the morning session, by noting that "if computer modeling was applied to business applications just as it is to the construction of an airplane that the potential productivity gains would be staggering." Specifically, a half of a trillion dollars could be generated in business process transformations, Horn said. Thomas J. Lange, Associate Director, Corporate Engineering, for the Procter & Gamble Company explained how important HPC had been in developing an advanced manufacturing process for their Pringles product and the resultant cost reductions that have enhanced Proctor and Gamble's bottom line. HPC is equally important to the aerospace industry in the ability to computationally design new aircraft models. Doug Ball, Manager of Enabling Technology & Research, at the Boeing Company, stated that computational capability is key for "risk reduction." Ball said that "to design a revolutionary aircraft today will require a fundamental change in the look of an airplane. It is necessary to mitigate the cost associated with that level of research and design." Using HPC, Boeing has "the ability to explore more novel configurations computationally," Ball said. John H. Marburger III, Science Advisor to President Bush and the Director of the White Houser Office of Science and Technology Policy, confirmed the federal government's commitment to HPC. Marburger stated during the luncheon keynote that we were at the "tipping point," close to experiencing a new wave of HPC that will transform businesses all together. Marburger congratulated the Council on Competitiveness, DOE, and DARPA for their commitment to fostering industry use of HPC for economic development. "Our economic future depends on innovation. Innovation depends on science. Therefore we will continue to invest in science," During the conference, attendees also heard first hand from other senior executives from a range of leading companies such as: DreamWorks, Livermore Software Technology Corporation, and HNTB architects. Attendees heard about the importance of using high performance computing to accelerate competitiveness, as well as the obstacles to acquiring and accessing these systems. In addition, top government executives such as Dr. Anthony Tether, Director of the Dept. of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and Dr. Everet H. Beckner, Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs, National Nuclear Security Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, discussed the government's role in developing and advancing HPC technology and promoting widespread application. The Council on Competitiveness is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization whose members are corporate chief executives, university presidents, and labor leaders dedicated to setting an action agenda to drive U.S. economic competitiveness and leadership in global markets. The Council helps shape the national debate on competitiveness by concentrating on a few critical issues including national and regional innovation, competitiveness and security, globalization, workforce development, and the benchmarking of U.S. economic performance against other countries.