This year’s Supercomputing Conference 2013 took place in Denver, USA, from November 18th – 21st. Fortissimo was represented through several partner booths and participated in the Collaboration Hub “Adopting HPC” at the Intel booth. Two presentation were given in the exhibition by Mark Parsons, Executive Director of EPCC, and Guy Lonsdale, CEO of Scapos AG.

1. Fortissimo
Enabling manufacturing SMEs to
benefit from HPC
Professor Mark Parsons
EPCC, The University of Edinburgh

2. The Fortissimo Project
• Building a Cloud of HPC Resources to solve SMEs’
business challenges
• One of the I4MS* projects within the “Factories of the
Future” initiative
• Complementing generic SME initiatives in EC FP7
Programme - specific support to deliver economic
growth through modelling and simulation
• Focus on problem solving – not technology
development
• Brings together all of the players in a marketplace
(*) ICT Innovation for Manufacturing SMEs
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3. Fortissimo – scale & structure
• €22m costs, €16m EC funding, 45 partners growing to 90+
over the 3 year duration
• 20 initial “Experiments” with SMEs
• Each experiment has 2-4 partners
• Funding of up to €250,000 per experiment
• 2 Open Calls for proposals
• First opening in November 2013
HPC
Service
Provider
HPC
Expert
End user
Indepen
dent
Software
Vendor
• Second opening May 2014
• Optimised financial and legal
structure to assist SMEs
Applicati
on
Expert
Research
Software
Provider
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4. Our goal
To improve company competitiveness
through the use of HPC to deliver
new or improved products and services
Modelling and Simulation on
HPC is increasingly being used
to provide competitive edge
Europe has world class HPC
assets and expertise
Economic
growth for
Europe

5. HPC for business
HPC and economic growth
• It is understood worldwide that to compete in the global
marketplace companies need to innovate
• Many industrialised economies (both developed and
developing) have identified HPC as a key tool for
innovation
• In the USA the phrase “to out compute is to out compete”
has been used to make the case to Government
• Very few funding agencies have properly tried to study
the true economic benefit of HPC to their company base

6. HPC for business
HPC adoption best practice
• Many companies don’t make use of HPC because
there is a large hurdle to overcome
• Initial costs are high: modelling, software, skills
• Fortissimo is designed to help companies overcome
that hurdle and become regular users of HPC
• Demonstrating its value
• Based on existing model best practice for working
with SMEs
• E.g. Supercomputing Scotland

7. Pilot projects
• Deep Casing Tools Ltd
• Oil & gas sector
• Mud-powered reaming
device
• Prospect FS Ltd
• Renewable energy sector
• Shallow water wind turbine
• Fios Genomics Ltd
• Bio-science sector
• Genomics services

8. Collaborative scenarios
HPC
Service
Provider
HPC
Service
Provider
HPC Expert
End user
End User
HPC
Expert
Successful HPC projects
rely on multiple
collaborative
relationships
Independent
Software
Vendor
HPC
Service
Provider
Application
Expert
HPC
Service
Provider
Independent
Software
Vendor
HPC Expert
End user
End user
HPC Expert
Independent
Software
Vendor
Application
Expert
Research
Software
Provider

9. Examples of Fortissimo Experiments
 Exp. 6: Reducing energy
and emissions using
Cloud HPC for urban
planning
 Exp. 18: Cloud-based CFD
simulation for SMEs
 SME: Integrated
Environmental Solutions
Ltd
 World leading hypercar
manufacturer
 Using HPC to move from
modelling individual
buildings to urban scale
 Demonstrating faster,
cheaper, detailed CFD
modelling
 SME: Koenigsegg AB
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10. The current “cloud” of experiments
….aerodynamics
of light aircraft
.. Multiphysics simulation
…continuous casting
… tools for urban
planning
…high pressure
vessels
..design of metal flanges
… molecular simulation
for industrial chemical
engineering
… CFD for
turbomachinery
.. CFD … automotive design
… routing architecture
optimisation..
… air-quality over cities
.. correlation ..
simulation & tests for
.. CO2 emission prediction
mechatronics
for automotive engines
… risers, moorings
and flowlines ... low-pressure
die-casting …
… structural crash tests
… commercial
computational chemistry
… eolian snow transport
for civil engineering …
Information available at:
www.fortissimo-project.eu/experiments
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