Medrad, a provider of drug delivery systems, MRI imaging accessories and catheters, had purchased patents for a promising interventional catheter device to mechanically remove blood clots associated with a stroke. Breaking with a long tradition of building numerous physical prototypes to research the potential of a new technology, Medrad turned to the NSF-funded Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, experts at Carnegie Mellon University and the use of complex numerical simulations running on high performance computers to determine if the catheter technology was worth pursuing. It was.