Supercomputers

Computers are used to solve problems in numerous scientific fields where tasks can range in complexity from simple statistical analyses to simulating nuclear explosions at the molecular level. Scientific computing usually refers to those tasks that would be otherwise infeasible to compute by hand. Many such tasks require extraordinary computational resources and are often accomplished by distributing subtasks across many computers, which communicate through a network of some kind. This network then becomes one of the most important deciding factors in how quickly a task can be completed. Supercomputers are often designed, and used, to solve problems of the latter variety. One of the most important vendors in supercomputing is Cray Inc., founded as Cray Research in 1972 by Seymour Cray. He has been referred to as “the father of supercomputing” and was the architect of his company’s first supercomputer, the Cray-1. The Cray1 was released in 1976 and, at the time, was the fastest computer in the world. Throughout the 1980s Cray Inc. continued to offer some of the fastest computers in the world, but they were surpassed in the ‘90s by designs such as Intel’s Paragon supercomputers and by IBM’s Blue Gene supercomputers in the last decade. However, its latest supercomputer Titan, developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was recently ranked as the fastest supercomputer of 2012 as listed by the TOP500 project. —Finn Kuusisto studies. Not only did I acquire technical skills in the process, as I learned new software tools and programming languages, but I also learned how to effectively present your project in front of a large audience. During my stay at the CUTE Center, there were numerous incidents when I had to exhibit my projects in public. Sometimes they were in the form of group exhibitions where various lab members showcased their projects; at other times there were individual demos for media coverage. In short, working at CUTE Center was a stepping-stone for me, an engineering student who aspires to be a researcher. It gave me a glimpse of what research is really like—something very different from normal coursework modules.