Space, Quantum, COVID-19 research took centre stage in 2020-21

We are delighted to present our new Annual Report, reflecting on our achievement during 2021-2022 — a year in which the value of Pawsey’s infrastructure, expertise and people has never been clearer.

Despite the challenges posed through the COVID-19 pandemic, Pawsey has had a very good year, with our staff continuing to deliver and expand the programs and activities supporting the research communities and key stakeholders that we serve.

New systems were made available to researchers as part of the $70m Capital Refresh, our training reached 4,000 more than the previous year, our summer internship grew in number of participants and projects, and the Quantum Brilliance partnership continued to progress, while we also reaffirmed our commitment to deliver services to SMEs as part of ASDAF.

In preparation for the arrival of the new supercomputer, the Centre rebranded and unveiled its name: Setonix, the Latin name of the Quokka. When fully commissioned the system will be 30x more powerful than our current supercomputers, Magnus and Galaxy.

While these are significant milestones, we also continued to deliver on our mission of supporting science and accelerating discovery.

We have proudly supported Australian researchers on a vast array of projects, from developing new tools to assess patient risk with machine learning, to guiding the experimental development of safe, long-life, high-capacity rechargeable batteries that could power the transport of the future.

We underpin research that helps protect vulnerable species, including the Quokka, played a key role in creating a new atlas of the Universe and we continue to empower students by building their capacity in data literacy.

Throughout this year we have fulfilled our purpose of unlocking impactful scientific knowledge through research, critical infrastructure, expert staff, sector know-how, and customer-centric problem-solving.

We invite you to download our annual report, where you can read more about the science and support delivered during the past financial year and meet some of the people behind these successes. We also encourage you to provide feedback via help@pawsey.org.au or pr@pawsey.org.au

Pawsey 2020-21 in a glance

  • Our infrastructure and expertise serviced over 4,000 researchers and 143 projects.
  • Pawsey enabled 397 publications,
  • As part of the capital refresh, a path to extreme-scale program was launched, named PaCER, and 10 research groups gained meritorious access to the program.
  • As part of PaCER, several international collaborations with peer supercomputing centres and industry were forged.
  • Four research groups are currently testing Quantum technology as the result of our collaboration with ANU start-up Quantum Brilliance.
  • Over 512 million hours were requested across the allocation schemes, nearly twice the 276 million available, demonstrating the ongoing demand for our support
  • 5,500 people were reached with training and more than 1,500 hours of training was delivered to teachers and students as part of the STEM strategy.
  • More than 2,000 people joined Pawsey events.
  • 980 people were reached by Pawsey’s first virtual tour during National Science Week.
  • Our Centre staff championed Women in HPC and engaged in communities of practices in diverse fields, including computational fluid dynamics and Bioinformatics.
  • Pawsey and NCI joined the COVID-19 High-Performance Computing Consortium led by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the U.S. Department of Energy and IBM.

 

Pawsey released 2020-21 Annual Report - New Frontiers in Science and Discovery
Download here
Dr Cathhy Foley, Australian Chief of Science, presentation during one of the Quantum events runs by Pawsey

Dr Cathhy Foley, Australia's Chief Scientist, presentation during one of the Quantum events runs by Pawsey

Enrico Palermo, Head of the Australia Space Agency, during his visit to the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre

Enrico Palermo, Head of the Australia Space Agency, during his visit to the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre

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