The National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) Singapore, a GeoWorks GeoPartner, co-organised a webinar - “Reimagining the Future with High Performance Computing” - with GeoWorks on 5 March 2021. Speakers from NSCC, Surbana Jurong, A*STAR and Centre for Liveable Cities shared presentations and real-life cases.

High Performance Computing (HPC) or supercomputing, according to NSCC’s Director of Strategy, Planning and Engagement Mr Bernard Tan, “is the ability to process huge amounts of data and perform complex calculations at high speed”. “It is through data that ground-breaking scientific discoveries are made and game-changing innovations are built as well as the quality of life is improved around the world,” he said.

While digitalisation has “given birth to an avalanche of data”, Mr Tan said that the COVID-19 pandemic, has accelerated digitalisation, something “many government officials, CEOs and CTOs have found hard to do” and has changed the way individuals live and work. In order to stay ahead of their competitors, Mr Tan said that organisations require reliable infrastructure and processes to store and analyse massive amounts of data.

HPC, he said, is “the foundation and an enabler to allow a nation, a company and an individual to achieve scientific breakthroughs and to solve complex challenges”, adding that one of the NSCC’s vision is to “democratise access to supercomputing”. The NSCC, he said, is presently in the process of building its second supercomputer – ASPIRE 2 – which is expected to be 10 to 15 times bigger and faster than its first.

“With super computing resources, innovators no longer need to downsize the problem and they can respond to the market with much more precision as well as agility and speed,” he said. “Therefore, it's critical that we embark on a new path whether it's COVID or post-COVID whereby technology would be able to power our next innovation and the next improvement.”

(Top row) Ms Genevieve Shaun Lin from the Centre for Liveable Cities Singapore (centre), Mr Eugene Seah from Surbana Jurong (right). (Bottom row) Dr Poh Hee Joo from A*STAR (left), Prof. Tan Tin Wee from NSCC (right).

Other speakers and the topics they presented at the webinar were Mr Eugene Seah, Senior Director (Special Projects), GCEO's Office from Surbana Jurong (“Cloud Computing in Sustainability and Resiliency”), Dr Poh Hee Joo, Senior Scientist and Domain Specialist (Built Environment) in Institute of High Performance Computing at A*STAR (“Wind Load Prediction on Trees in Virtual Urban Landscape for Greenery Management”) and Ms Genevieve Shaun Lin, Assistant Director (Research), Centre for Liveable Cities Singapore (“CLC Complexity Science (Inter-Agency) Project: Street Network Modelling for Spatial Resilience”). Prof. Tan Tin Wee, NSCC’s Chief Executive gave the welcome remarks.

Watch the webinar recording here.