GSA Hosts Summit to Discuss High-Performance Computing Benefits, Opportunities

The General Services Administration gathered industry representatives, academics and senior government leaders in a virtual summit to discuss opportunities that high-performance computing brings to various industries. Over 400 individuals participated in the April 20 event co-hosted with the CIO Council and the Information Technology Industry Council to share and learn how HPC benefits federal organizations and industry partners, GSA said.

The topics discussed at the summit include using HPC to optimize energy production processes and improve the efficiency of nuclear power plants; enable a more accurate prediction of hurricanes, tornadoes and extreme weather events; advance military and defense simulations and analyze large-scale data for intelligence gathering and decision-making; and conduct large-scale data analysis to speed up the development of new treatments and therapies.

Attendees include Janice Gordon, advanced research computing team lead at U.S. Geological Survey and industry leaders from Microsoft and Google. According to Gordon, HPC allowed her agency to determine how water levels can impact communities and environments. Representatives from Microsoft and Google, meanwhile, talked about how HPC is being used in the cloud, data centers and other systems.

The event also featured question-and-answer sessions and an HPC-focused case study.