Pawsey awarded 2017 HPCwire Editors’ Choice Awards for Best Use of HPC in Energy

Waves of applause for Pawsey at SC17 Denver conference

Thanks to its extensive collaboration with industry and academia, Pawsey has received the HPCwire Reader’s and Editor’s Choice Award in recognition of the centre’s outstanding performance. HPCwire is the number one news source for high-performance computers and the award represents the impact Pawsey supercomputers are having internationally.

One of the principles driving operation of Pawsey’s vastly powerful supercomputers is a focus on working hand-in-hand with industry innovation. Alongside Pawsey’s processing power helping academic research, the centre is dedicated to cooperating with government projects and enterprising businesses looking to make an impact.

“There is undeniable community support signified in receiving this award. Not only from the entire HPC space, but also the amplitude of industries it serves,” said Tom Tabor, CEO of Tabor Communications, publisher of HPCwire.

Pawsey took home the award for Best Use of High Performance Computing in Energy, for the centre’s collaboration on the Carnegie Wave Power project, alongside the University of Western Australia. Pawsey also collected a nomination in the field of life sciences for the centre’s collaboration with Dr Laura Boykin and her Cassava Warriors’ team in their fight against insect and virus outbreaks.

Carnegie Clean Energy’s hydrodynamics research division, led by team leader, Dr Rafiee, in collaboration with researchers from University of Western Australia, led by Dr Hugh Wolgamot, used Pawsey’s Magnus supercomputer to analyse the fluid dynamics of extreme waves, to design a wave power system able to survive the damaging effects of severe weather conditions – one of the biggest hurdles facing wave power technology. The aim of the project is to convert the energy of the ocean’s waves into a clean source of electrical power and desalinated water. Globally, Carnegie is an undisputed leader in wave energy technology and the only company to operate a grid-connected wave energy project over four seasons.

“Carnegie Clean Energy is greatly honoured to be granted the Editors’ choice award for best use of High Performance Computing in Energy. The award recognises the strong and productive collaboration between Carnegie, The University of Western Australia and the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre on achieving deeper understanding of extreme conditions in oceans and consequently optimisation of the CETO wave energy converter to survive such conditions,” said Jonathan Fievez Carnegie’s Chief Technology Officer.

The Team
Dr Hugh Wolgamot – The University of Western Australia, Dr Ashkan Rafiee – Carnegie Clean Energy, Dr Jana Orszaghova – The University of Western Australia and Jonathan Fievez Carnegie’s Chief Technology Officer.

It takes petascale computing power to accomplish the work recognised by HPC Wire – a level of processing meaning more than one quadrillion operations occur per second. Pawsey has only been capable of petascale computing since 2015, and receiving this award demonstrates the far-reaching impact Pawsey has made with petascale computing over a short time.

Winners of the 2017 Readers’ and Editors’ Choice Awards can be found here: https://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/hpcwire-reveals-winners-2017-readers-editors-choice-awards-sc17-conference-denver/