IACS plays prominent role in Singapore’s inaugural supercomputing conference

Harrison is keynote speaker, Deng co-chairs Supercomputing Frontiers 2015

The Republic of Singapore was established in 1965 and is only about half the size of Los Angeles. Yet, despite its youthful age and small size, Singapore has become what many consider one of the most successful countries on the planet in terms of driving new discoveries and innovations in the field of high performance computing.

From March 17 to 20, Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research Computational Research Centre (A*CRC) served as the host of Supercomputing Frontiers 2015, the country’s first conference on the latest developments and trends in high performance computing. There, over 350 supercomputing experts from all over the world, including IACS Director Robert Harrison and IACS affiliate Professor Yuefan Deng, came together to share their latest research at Biopolis, one of A*CRC’s two data centers.

According to Harrison, who was one of seven keynote speakers, he just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to represent Stony Brook University’s IACS at Supercomputing Frontiers 2015. “We came to the conference with an eye on growing the existing cooperation between A*CRC and Stony Brook’s IACS; to bring our program to the international stage,” said Harrison. “A*CRC is a world leader in all types of computing, not just supercomputing.”

While on sabbatical as a visiting professor to A*CRC last fall, Deng helped organize and co-chaired the conference with A*CRC Senior Director and IACS affiliate Dr. Marek T. Michalewicz. “Our goal was to attract the world’s leaders at the forefront of supercomputing to present their latest research,” said Deng. “We succeeded in that.”

Besides benefitting the research community, Deng said the conference also directly benefitted the growing and lucrative supercomputing sector in Singapore by bringing public awareness to supercomputing and by calling on Singapore to invest some of its technology funds in supercomputing research. “Singapore’s government has heavily invested in biotechnologies,” said Deng. Of all countries, “Singapore has likely the highest per-capita investment in technology, although it’s third highest in per-capita GDP. Supercomputing is catching up with [Singapore’s] other [technology] sectors.”

Supercomputing Frontiers 2015 is widely considered to be the most important supercomputing research conference held to date in Singapore, and one that brought well deserved attention to Singapore’s recent and important accomplishments in high performance computing. To view the conference details, visit http://supercomputingfrontiers2015.com/. For more information about A*CRC, visit https://www.acrc.a-star.edu.sg/.