LANL News:
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – The Exascale Computing Project (ECP), a collaborative project led by six Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories with the project management office established at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Wednesday announced the formation of the ECP Industry Council, an external advisory group of executives from some of the nation’s most prominent companies with a collaborative interest in bringing the potential of exascale computing to a wide range of industry segments.
Exascale refers to computing systems operating at least 50 times faster than the nation’s most powerful supercomputers in use today.
The newly formed ECP Industry Council is chartered with providing advice and guidance to the ECP director and leadership team, driving essential two-way communication and information exchange between the ECP and the high performance computing (HPC) industrial user community as well as the commercial HPC software community. The Industry Council was established by the ECP project office at ORNL in close coordination with the six contractor-managed DOE national laboratories leading the ECP.
The Industry Council will provide guidance and feedback on ECP’s strategic direction, project scope, technical requirements and progress, providing the perspective of private industry as it relates to the emerging need for exascale-level computation and the formation of a holistic exascale ecosystem.
Dr. J. Michael McQuade, senior vice president, Science & Technology, United Technologies Corporation, will serve as the first Chair of the ECP Industry Council.
“I’m pleased to have the opportunity to lead this important Council,” McQuade said. “Exascale level computing will help industry address ever more complex, competitively important problems, ones which are beyond the reach of today’s leading edge computing systems. We compete globally for scientific, technological and engineering innovations. Maintaining our lead at the highest level of computational capability is essential for our continued success.”
The council members are executives from various segments of private industry. The companies participating in the ECP Industry Council include:
- Altair Engineering, Incorporated
- ANSYS, Incorporated
- Cascade Technologies, Incorporated
- Chevron Energy Technology Company
- Cummins Inc.
- DreamWorks Animation
- Eli Lilly and Company
- Exxon Mobil Corporation
- FedEx Corporation
- General Electric
- General Motors Company
- Mars, Incorporated
- Procter & Gamble Company
- The Dow Chemical Company
- Tri Alpha Energy, Incorporated
- United Technologies Corporation
- Westinghouse Electric Company
- Whirlpool Corporation
According to ECP Director Paul Messina, “The external Industry Council is vitally important to keeping the project in sync with the real world needs of the HPC industrial user community. These experienced executives will bring deep insight to the requirements of the U.S. industrial sector and help us ensure future exascale capabilities are designed to address a wide range of industrial applications. The executives on this Council will play a key role in guiding the computational foundation for U.S. competitiveness.”
About ECP
ECP is a laboratory-led project that has six DOE National Laboratories as core partners (in alphabetical order Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Sandia National Laboratories) and participation in the project’s technical activities by nearly all 17 DOE National Laboratories. The project management office is at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The ECP is a collaborative effort of two DOE organizations—the Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration. ECP was established to develop a capable exascale ecosystem, encompassing applications, system software, hardware technologies and architectures, and workforce development, to meet the scientific and national security mission needs of DOE.
About the Office of Science
DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit http://science.energy.gov/.
About NNSA
Established by Congress in 2000, NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy responsible for enhancing national security through the military application of nuclear science. NNSA maintains and enhances the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile without nuclear explosive testing; works to reduce the global danger from weapons of mass destruction; provides the U.S. Navy with safe and effective nuclear propulsion; and responds to nuclear and radiological emergencies in the U.S. and abroad. https://nnsa.energy.gov.
