SCIENCE

All this week, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is highlighting its advanced supercomputing capabilities with a week of features demonstrating the science and technology work done by the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program. As part of that effort, NNSA also launched a new and improved ASC webpageyesterday. 

Today’s feature includes a new video on the NNSA website that describes the hardware, software, codes, and data that make supercomputers such a critical part of President Obama’s nuclear security agenda. As part of NNSA’s effort to recruit and retain the next generation of nuclear security experts, today’s NNSA Supercomputing Week feature also highlights the winners of theNew Mexico Supercomputing Challenge held at Los Alamos National Laboratory. 

More than 200 New Mexico students and their teachers participated in the event that included about 50 teams of elementary, middle and high school students who represent the future of American science and technology leadership. 

“Preparing the next generation of computer science experts is an important part of our effort to invest in the future and so we can continue to implement President Obama’s nuclear security agenda,” said Don Cook, NNSA’s Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs. “NNSA is committed to promoting the advancement of science and computing by engaging with students on the ways some of the world’s most powerful computers can be used to analyze, model and solve real-world problems.”

As part of NNSA’s commitment to reach to the next generation of computer scientists, the Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program (PSAAP) engage the academic community in making significant advances in predictive modeling and simulation technologies. Research conducted through these partnerships contributes to the knowledge base required to demonstrate the capabilities of predictive modeling and simulation across a broad spectrum of science and engineering applications using some of the most powerful computers in the world. 

The PSAAP encourages collaboration between the national laboratories and universities in the advancement of multi-disciplinary predictive modeling and simulation technologies, and educating and recruiting individuals with skills critical to ASC. 

The program involves demonstrating the power of simulation to build models of large-scale complex multi-physics systems requiring ASC-class computers. The goal is both to further these disciplines and more accurately identify and bound the uncertainty of the predictions made by the simulations. 

In addition, NNSA supports an institute at each of its national laboratories to advance basic and applied research initiatives in computational sciences in support of the ASC Program. These institutes attract university experts to work with laboratory staff in research initiatives, and serve as focal points for laboratory-university interactions.

For more information on NNSA’s supercomputing capabilities, visit the new and improved ASC webpage athttp://www.nnsa.energy.gov/asc.

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Established by Congress in 2000, NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy responsible for enhancing national security through the military application of nuclear science in the nation’s national security enterprise. NNSA maintains and enhances the safety, security, reliability, and performance of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile without nuclear testing; reduces the global danger from weapons of mass destruction; provides the U.S. Navy with safe and effective nuclear propulsion; and responds to nuclear and radiological emergencies in the U.S. and abroad.