Communications of the ACM
The Need For Speed
Harvard University researchers are using high-performance computers to achieve new breakthroughs in a variety of areas of science and engineering.
Credit: Natasha Hurley-Walker
Harvard University researchers are using high-performance computers to achieve new breakthroughs in science and engineering.
For example, Harvard professor Alan Aspuru-Guzik is using Harvard's Orgoglio computing cluster of parallel graphics processing units to determine the electronic properties of individual molecules with a very high level of accuracy in less than a day.
The researchers also have analyzed thousands of kinds of quinones to find the best candidates to store energy in a new type of organic flow battery, which could fundamentally transform the electrical grid by providing an affordable and continuous supply of power from wind and solar farms.
Harvard researchers also are working on the Connectome Project, which aims to create a complete wiring diagram of all the neurons in a healthy human brain, empowering neuroscientists to study the causes and mechanisms of thought, behavior, memory, aging, and mental illness.
In addition, the Multiscale Hemodynamics Project is using advanced computational techniques and visual simulations to understand how red blood cells and other particles flow through the human circulatory system.
Harvard researchers also contributed to the completion of the Murchison Widefield Array, an advanced radio telescope that generates wide-field images continuously in real time and captures 19 gigabytes of data a second, totaling a petabyte a day.
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