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Council of Competitiveness

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  • Folgers HPC

    “Supercomputers and the Secret Life of Coffee.”

    To improve the freshness of its Folgers® coffee and reduce the costs of packaging, researchers at Procter & Gamble decided to switch from a metal can to a plastic container. However, they ran into a number of problems related to gas build up inside the containers, fluctuations caused by changes in atmospheric pressure during shipment and a problem associated with the coffee cans imploding while being trucked to their destination. This latter problem almost caused the entire research project to fail. The group used high performance computing both to solve their problems in a timely fashion, and provide the company with a competitive advantage as well.

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  • PPG Shades HPC

    “A Tale of Stylish Shades and High Performance Computing.”

    To advance the state of the art of its proprietary photochromic technology used in Transitions® eyewear and speed its time-to-market, PPG Industries enlisted the help of high performance computing. Advancing photochromic technology, which allows lenses to change from clear to dark and block harmful ultraviolet rays, involves complex modeling and simulation of molecules at the atomic and quantum levels. By enlisting the help of the NSF-funded Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and its powerful high performance computing capabilities, PPG’s R&D organization was able to rapidly create the next generation of photochromic dyes, and move out in front of its competition.

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  • Salk Brain HPC

    “Breakthroughs in Brain Research with High Performance Computing.”

    Researchers at the Salk Institute are using supercomputers at the nearby NSF-funded San Diego Supercomputer Center to investigate how the synapses of the brain work. Their research has the potential to help people suffering from mental disorders such as Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia and manic depressive disorders. In addition, the use of supercomputers is helping to change the very nature of biology—from a science that has relied primarily on observation to a science that relies on high performance computing to achieve previously impossible in-depth quantitative results.

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