INSIGHT Can Drive Innovation

Competitiveness

April / May 2007 By: Deborah Wince-Smith Volume 5 Number 2

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It's no secret that the U.S. can no longer compete on low-end, commoditized work. America increasingly needs to become an innovation-driven economy, and no technology has shown greater ability to drive innovation than high performance computing (HPC), also known as supercomputing.

The Department of Energy's INCITE program each year awards enormous blocks of time on some of the world's most powerful supercomputers to projects with strong potential for breakthrough advances. At first, the program was limited to basic science. But in 2005, at the recommendation of the Council on Competitiveness, INCITE was opened to private sector companies as well. As a result, the growing contingent of companies that rely on supercomputing to perfect their products and manufacturing processes were able to compete for access to U.S. government supercomputer resources. Pratt and Whitney, for example, received an INCITE Award in 2006 to run aircraft engine simulations critical for improving fuel efficiency while reducing emissions.

HPC drives innovation not only by allowing companies to run current computing problems at larger scale and higher resolution, but by making it possible to tackle previously intractable problems. An impressive recent example of HPC use was the discovery, by Chevron and its partners, of a new Gulf of Mexico oil reservoir that could boost total U.S. reserves by up to half. HPC permitted the Chevron researchers to "see" the invisible reservoir beneath a miles-thick layer of salt deposits.

HPC also fits the changing nature of innovation. Historically, innovation occurred mainly through the efforts of individual investigators working in single, sharply demarcated disciplines. Today, the biggest advances increasingly come from multidisciplinary collaborations. For example, designing new cars requires the ability to look concurrently at multiple interdependent factors, including crashworthiness, aerodynamics, fuel-efficiency, cabin noise and vibration, and ride harshness. Teams of people with differing expertise contribute to the designs.

Current examples of HPC-based innovation are abundant and diverse. Since the 1970s, nearly every car, truck and aircraft in the world has been designed with the aid of supercomputers. HPC allowed Boeing to build its new 787 Dreamliner plane after testing only 11 wing designs, versus 77 wing designs for the older 767. HPC enables DreamWorks Animation to compete effectively against animated films from countries with far lower labor costs. Proctor & Gamble uses HPC to optimize the manufacturing process for Pringles, and in its diaper business. Wal-Mart uses HPC for supply chain optimization and, from its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, to service all of its stores worldwide, right down to turning on the lights. Pharmaceutical companies regularly tap into HPC for drug discovery and new medical treatments.

For 2007, in a ceremony held at the Council's offices, DOE Under Secretary Raymond Orbach announced awards totaling 95 million hours of supercomputing time (considerably more than in any prior year) to seven businesses: Corning, Inc., Fluent, Inc., Proctor & Gamble, DreamWorks Animation, General Atomics, Pratt & Whitney and Boeing. During the same ceremony, Orbach named the INCITE award winners for research in basic science.

Procter & Gamble's Kelly Anderson noted that, "This grant allows us to perform computer simulations, at an unprecedented scale, on the dissolving of soap and forming of suds." Evan Smyth, DreamWorks Animation, said the supercomputer cycles "help keep us on the leading edge of technology, and ultimately, computer-generated movie making."

The Council on Competitiveness' research has demonstrated the positive impact of supercomputing on U.S. industrial competitiveness. Through the INCITE partnership program, The Department of Energy is helping U.S. industry solve some of its most critical challenges, resulting in the high-value economic activity that is critical to American competitiveness. The INCITE program provides a double return-on-investment because it leverages the government's investments in supercomputing to provide an additional boost to American industrial and national competitiveness. At the same time, DOE benefits from access to some of industry's best thinkers as they collaborate to solve cutting-edge problems.

The Council on Competitiveness is the only group of corporate CEOs, university presidents, and labor leaders committed to driving U.S. competitiveness in global markets and ensuring the future prosperity of all Americans through the creation of high-value economic activity.

Deborah Wince-Smith is president of the Council on Competitiveness.