Supercomputers as Superheroes: How High-Performance Computing Is Saving the World
Modern supercomputers can perform more than a trillion calculations per second. This immense capacity enables researchers to address problems that were previously intractable. At the XXVI April International Academic Conference, Ilias Kotsireas, a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, spoke about the potential of high-performance computing in fields such as weather and climate modelling, astrophysics, and medicine.
Digital Fortress, Dan Brown’s 1998 bestselling novel, describes a supercomputer of extraordinary power—it consists of three million processors working in parallel and can crack any cipher in seconds. What seemed like fantasy 25 years ago has now become reality. Modern exascale supercomputers can perform more than a trillion calculations per second. By comparison, an ordinary computer would take decades to achieve the same result.
Thanks to high-performance computing, a vast range of tasks can now be solved, from modelling new drugs to studying the origin of the Universe.
Ilias Kotsireas
‘In my opinion, the most important and in-demand area today is climate change adaptation. Over the past 50 years, natural disasters, such as fires, floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes, have claimed more than two million lives. Global climate change is causing the number of such disasters to increase each year. Supercomputers make it possible to simulate hazardous scenarios and develop early warning systems,’ notes Prof. Kotsireas.
Two methods are used to model tsunamis: nonlinear shallow water equations and big data—vast amounts of information accumulated over many years of observation. Both approaches can be implemented only through parallel, high-performance computing.
‘It was Pythagoras who first proposed that natural phenomena can be described mathematically. But fast and efficient calculations require substantial computational power. People are drawn to living near water, but it is not always safe. Tsunami and earthquake early warning systems make it possible to evacuate people in advance and assess potential damage,’ the scientist explains.
A relatively new area in which supercomputers are used is the creation of digital twins—precise virtual replicas of objects such as enterprises, transport systems, cities, or even the entire planet.
‘Imagine you need to build an oil refinery. But where is the best place to locate it? If the site turns out to be unsuitable, the company will incur huge losses. That is why we create a digital twin of the facility to simulate all processes and ultimately make the best decision,’ says Prof. Kotsireas. ‘Digital twins help reduce costs, prevent accidents, and improve design.’
According to Prof. Kotsireas, a digital Earth project is already underway, aiming to develop adaptive strategies to help combat climate change.
Other important areas that rely on high-performance computing include chemistry, medicine, astrophysics, training of generative AI models, cryptography, support for social media platforms, and more.
According to Prof. Kotsireas, governments and private companies will continue to invest heavily in the development of new, more powerful and sophisticated supercomputers. This is reflected in the regularly updated rankings of the most powerful supercomputers in Russia and worldwide, available at top50.supercomputers.ru and top500.org. As for quantum computing, the main potential competitor of supercomputers, it is still in its infancy.
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