Highlights the use of supercomputers in science and business at the International Conference

What will be the future of High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems or supercomputers in the Baltic States – how to use supercomputers in business and public institutions and why the development of supercomputers requires state support – is discussed by experts at the 4^th Baltic HPC and Cloud conference on April 11 and 12.

It occurs in Riga Technical University (RTU) Science and Innovation Centre. RTU organizes the conference in cooperation with THE HPC competence Centre in Latvia “SuperS” and five HPC competence centers in the Baltic Sea Region – Estonia, Lithuania, Sweden (ENCCS), Finland (CSC) and Denmark (DK-NCC).

RTU Rector Tālis Juhna and Deputy Secretary of State for Human Capital, Science, and Innovation Development of the Ministry of Education and Science Janis Paiders opened the conference.

“The development of digital technologies and the full use of existing capabilities are not possible today without the use of supercomputers in science and business. Supercomputer resources are very important in the development processes of enterprises, municipalities, and the state, but unfortunately, there is still insufficient use of supercomputers in Latvia. This conference could help supercomputer capabilities to play out more widely, says Ilmars Slaidins, head of the Latvian HPC Competence Centre “SuperS”.

The future of three Baltic supercomputers has been raised as the conference’s main topic this year. Expert reports and discussions reveal the current situation and potential scenarios for development. Experts from different European countries share their experiences with the biggest challenges and perspectives of the HPC area. Participants will also be able to learn more about Europe’s most powerful supercomputer, LUMI, which is based in Finland and ranks fifth among the world’s TOP 500 most powerful supercomputers.

Given that the development of HPC in Latvia depends on projects and donations at the European level, the conference’s partners also shared their experience of HPC policy-making at the national level in other countries. The experience was shared by the developers of the HPC policy direction of Finland and Estonia, as well as representatives from the responsible institutions of Latvia.

The conference also had the opportunity to hear the stories of business experience, the scale of supercomputer capabilities in the industry and the potential for European support for entrepreneurs in taking up HPC infrastructure. Meanwhile, the future dimension of the conference will be marked by a session discussing whether quantum computing will replace supercomputers in the future. Quantum computing experts Andris Ambainis from the University of Latvia and Mikail Johansson from Finland spoke at this session.

HPC professionals – scientists, IT specialists, policy makers, SME’s from the Baltic States, Nordic countries and other European Union (EU) countries – meet at the 4^th Baltic HPC and Cloud Conference.

Anders dam Jensen, from the European HPC Joint Undertaking /European HPC (EuroHPC), presented the situation in the area of HPC in Europe and the way forward.

Programme

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