4 ways supercomputers offer solutions to India's toughest challenges

Essentially, supercomputers harness the collective computing power of tens of thousands of connected machines, running a single software program that requires such a massive amount of processing power to execute.

Organizations across industries are facing the challenge to manage and analyze vast amounts of data that hold the answers to some of the world’s most complex problems. To accelerate scientific discoveries, enable new breakthroughs, and speed up the development of solutions, deployment of the world’s largest and most powerful computers is crucial.

Enter supercomputers!

Essentially, supercomputers harness the collective computing power of tens of thousands of connected machines, running a single software program that requires such a massive amount of processing power to execute. To put it simply, imagine the collective computing power of 50,000 laptops working together within a single supercomputer towards a common goal.

Find out four distinct ways in which supercomputers can help India tackle its biggest challenges.

Drug discovery:

Supercomputers can significantly reduce the time needed to discover drug treatments and cures for diseases. By applying AI and machine learning to physics-based models, there can be a fundamental change in how new drugs are designed and tested. Using the power of an exascale supercomputer, we may be able to go from an idea to a clinical trial in a year.

Exascale computing can power AI models at scale, which presents the opportunity to extend breakthroughs to cancer, heart disease, and the development of new antibiotics.

Extreme weather prediction:

Weather and climate predictions are a combination of chemistry, geology, and physics – and all of these calculations happen on a sphere that’s spinning at about 1,000 miles per hour.

Thankfully, this is exactly the type of problem supercomputers were built to solve, helping forecasters today do a far better job of predicting and reducing the impact of extreme weather events on the country.

Supercomputers can also help in disaster management by helping authorities allocate resources more efficiently and coordinate relief efforts more effectively.

Fighting food scarcity:

Help feed India’s population by increasing crop yields.

Despite agriculture being the primary source of livelihood for a large section of the population in India, the Global Hunger Index 2022 ranked India 107 out of 121 countries with a score of 29.1 indicating a serious level of hunger. The country’s child wasting rate at 19.3 per cent is the highest in the world.

Supercomputing can help in developing precision agriculture techniques that use data analytics, sensors, and other advanced technologies to optimize the use of resources such as water, fertilizers, and pesticides. This can improve crop yields, reduce waste, and minimize environmental impacts.

We might also witness the onset of a new agricultural revolution that uses genomics and bioinformatics, along with new genome-editing techniques to create new varietals of crops.

Enhance sustainability:

Supercomputing can enhance sustainability in India by providing accurate predictions and simulations that aid in optimizing energy consumption, developing climate adaptation strategies, monitoring environmental conditions, and promoting sustainable agriculture practices.

Supercomputers can potentially invent next-generation batteries that are safer, cheaper, and run longer. It could design better nuclear fuels for clean energy or develop new polymers that degrade naturally when exposed to light so we don't put more plastic into the ocean. Supercomputers will significantly enhance the products we use each day – and reduce their impact on the environment.

Author : Som Satsangi, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, India