Mark Furtney, Ph.D., vice president of research and development at the Holland Computing Center, will present “High-Performance Computing: Chess, the Life Sciences, Pringles and the Singularity,” at noon today in the Eppley Science Hall Amphitheater.
Dr. Furtney’s seminar is part of an ongoing series of CTR seminars that are typically held on the third Monday of each month.
The series is aimed at bringing clinical and basic science investigators from across the university together to identify new ways to collaborate and answer important clinical questions.
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Supercomputers — such as the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Firefly — can help scientists and researchers make research breakthroughs. Supercomputing tends to be transformative in nature — allowing researchers to look at problems they could not even dream about before.
Those investigators who embrace such technology early often find their research becomes the leading-edge, Dr. Furtney said.
“I plan to discuss, in general terms, the role high-performance computing has had in other areas of research and also its potential role in biomedical research,” he said.
Such computers are especially good at creating astonishingly real models — everything from nuclear bombs, weather predictions and car crashes to gaining an understanding of the feedback systems that control the workings of a cell.
These models allow scientists to “see the future” in a particular problem domain, and when they can see the future sooner than other researchers, they have a competitive advantage.
“The impact of high-performance computing in the life science is growing rapidly,” Dr. Furtney said.
This, of course, has huge implications for UNMC researchers, who thanks to an agreement with UNO, have access to FireFly.
The seminar will be recorded and available for investigators who cannot attend. The seminar also will be televised at the following sites: