The High Performance Computing for Manufacturing (HPC4Manufacturing) program held an informative and productive workshop at the University of California Livermore Collaboration Center (UCLCC) Aug. 20-22, bringing together private industry, Department of Energy (DOE) offices, national laboratories and HPC cloud providers.
The event attracted more than 60 attendees from diverse sectors and commenced with an overview from LLNL Deputy Director for Science & Technology Pat Falcone. Falcone set the stage for a series of key presentations on the workshop's first day, including representatives from DOE's Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO), Office of Critical and Emerging Technologies and Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office.
In addition to the talks, the workshop featured discussions aimed at fostering new collaborations with various DOE offices and national labs. Notable presentations included insights from Tassos Golnas from DOE's Solar Energy Technologies Office, DOE AMMTO Technology Manager Paul Syers, LLNL's High Performance Computing Innovation Center Director Erik Draeger, DOE Advanced Scientific Computing Research Program Manager Steven Lee and Robin Wong from the DOE Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations.
"DOE's High Performance Computing for Manufacturing Program serves as a powerful bridge between private sector innovation and DOE expertise, fostering an open exchange of best practices among world-class researchers, equipment suppliers and manufacturing companies," said Syers. "Collaborating at workshops like these not only strengthens our collective understanding of the potential of supercomputing, but also sparks new ideas and collective projects that can shape the future of energy and manufacturing."
The three-day workshop also featured talks and demonstrations from leading HPC cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Rescale and RONIN, showcasing the latest advancements in cloud computing technologies. Industry and national laboratory principal investigators also shared their experiences and projects related to the HPC4Mfg program, providing valuable, real-world HPC applications that have led to improvements in areas such as advanced manufacturing, decarbonization and AI-driven modeling.
Each session concluded with a Q&A panel, and breakout sessions on the workshop's first and third days allowed participants to delve deeper into topic areas and foster a collaborative atmosphere. Organizers said the workshop underscored the importance of HPC in driving innovation, facilitated cross-sector knowledge exchange and strengthened connections among the participants, paving the way for future HPC collaborations.
Deputy Director of the HPC4EI program, Nick Killingsworth, said that based on the increasingly nuanced interactions that occurred over the three days of the workshop, it was "clear that HPC cloud providers and national lab researchers gained a deeper understanding of industry needs and private industry attendees were better able to appreciate and articulate the ways HPC could impact their business."
The HPC4Manufacturing program is managed by LLNL for DOE and is one of the main pillars for the HPC for Energy Innovation initiative.
