A lecture on how Supercomputers are able to contribute to a safe, reliable and sustainable society was held on Friday, 18th March 2016 at JCC. Japan’s largest research institution RIKEN had invented the K computer, which belongs to the highest calibre of Supercomputers in the world. Through trial and tribulations, the invention is now an indispensible tool for research and development.

Supercomputer lecturer Dr Motoi Okuda attained his Ph.D. in computer science from Japan Advanced Institutes of Science and Technology and is currently working for Research Organisation for Information Science & Technology (RIST), engaging in the Japanese High Performance Computing Infrastructure Project (HPCI). His past achievements include working for a well established multinational information and technology company Fujitsu for over 30 years, involved in Supercomputer application’s research and development, business as well as national projects.

In the lecture, Dr Okuda touched upon the latest Supercomputing trends such power efficiency and smaller foot prints. He explained the current global competition with China’s Tianhe machines, known to be the highest performing Supercomputers before the K computer. Video demonstrations and illustrations were shown to decode Supercomputer applications such as engineering, disaster mitigation, biosciences and international collaborations with Singapore.

At the end of the lecture, a brief Q&A was held to answer the many queries from the audience. Questions such as “Why are Japanese Supercomputers currently thriving?”, “How does one create a Supercomputer and how do you add speed?” and “What does the K for K computer stand for?” were answered by Dr Okuda. This lecture is one of the many science and technology lectures that will be held this year, make sure to join us for more!