Spin Fiber Faster to Gain a Competitive Edge for U.S. Textile Manufacturing, sponsored by the Department of Energy Office of Science, provides additional evidence, along with concrete and quantifiable assessments, of the economic benefits of HPC-driven innovation. This report is one of five in this first series of grand challenge studies describing some of the “what if” questions that HPC can address and the new opportunities for economic growth it can create. The grand challenge studies focus on the oil and gas, chemical, and auto industries.

Full Vehicle Design Optimization for Global Market Dominance, sponsored by the Department of Energy Office of Science, provides additional evidence, along with concrete and quantifiable assessments, of the economic benefits of HPC-driven innovation. This report is one of five in this first series of grand challenge studies describing some of the “what if” questions that HPC can address and the new opportunities for economic growth it can create. The grand challenge studies focus on the oil and gas, chemical, and auto industries.

The Council on Competitiveness is pleased to announce the release of the popular video showcasing how high performance computing (HPC) impacts everyday life, starring the humorous penguin characters from the hit DreamWorks Animation movie Madagascar.

Alcoa, the world’s leading producer of aluminum products, was one of the first companies to make major use of high performance computing when it became the NSF-funded Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center’s first industrial affiliate in 1987. When aluminum faced growing competition from plastic and other composite materials, the company used the PSC supercomputer to handle the complex modeling and simulations needed to get the jump on their competitors by successfully redesigning cans for the beverage industry and a variety of components for the automotive, aerospace, building and construction industries.

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.