How exactly does a company use HPC modeling and simulation to develop new technologies? HPC for Energy has produced “HPC in Action: Navistar” to give a behind the scenes look at one company’s HPC success story. This video explains how Navistar worked with a team of LLNL scientists to improve tractor trailer fuel economy across the country. The combination of wind tunnel testing and HPC enabled Navistar to optimize the design and significantly reduce the testing period for new drag-reduction technologies. By quickly identifying and deploying practical solutions, Navistar and LLNL improved tractor trailer fuel economy by 17%, which will save 4.6 billion gallons of fuel per year in the U.S.

This week concluded the Washington Conference and Technology Workshop entitled The Changing Outlook for U.S. Energy: Will Shale Gas Transform America’s Energy Future?. The conference identified high-performance computing as a powerful tool to improve the production and environmental impact of shale gas. HPC’s value reaches beyond the oil and gas industry, and energy companies of all sizes will benefit from clear information on how to engage the HPC resources resident at our national labs.

In May 2011, national leaders established the National Roadmap on Advancing Energy Technologies through High-Performance Computing. Since then, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Howard Baker Forum have launched the HPC for Energy Initiative to enact the Roadmap’s recommendations. In this video interview, Dona Crawford, leader of Livermore’s cutting-edge HPC programs, details various elements of the HPC for Energy Initiative.

As you will read many times throughout this site, high-performance computing is a tool to help spur American innovation and make us more competitive in the global energy marketplace. But high-performance computing modeling and simulation is more than just the millions of processors and miles of cable that make up today’s supercomputers — it is the men and women of our national laboratories who envision a scientific leap forward and write the complex code to make it reality. It is also our private-sector partners bringing us unique problems that challenge us to innovate and to move our thinking beyond a laboratory to real-world solutions.

On March 5, U.S. Senator John Hoeven hosted a meeting at North Dakota State University, bringing together stakeholders from the public and private sectors to discuss how to advance energy innovation.

For anybody that follows energy, North Dakota is known for its vast resources in oil, gas, and wind. What may not be quite as obvious is the role that supercomputing plays in offering these resources to the marketplace.

LIVERMORE, Calif., Oct 25 – Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) today issued a call to energy businesses of all sizes for proposals to collaborate with LLNL teams of experts in advancing energy technology through the use of high-performance computing (HPC).

What can 131,072 processors, 12 miles of cables and 300 trillion operations per second do for American competitiveness in the global energy marketplace?  When coupled with American entrepreneurship and private-sector innovation, high-performance computing (HPC) modeling and simulation can provide an edge to American companies of all sizes and hasten the implementation of crucial new technologies.

High-performance computing can provide an edge to American entrepreneurs and companies and hasten the implementation of crucial new technologies by substantially reducing development time and cost. The United States is a world leader in high-performance computing and advanced simulation applications. By testing a new concept or product in virtual space, HPC modeling and simulation dramatically reduces the number of physical prototypes necessary to bring a product to market. By shortening the development window, HPC gives American companies an edge in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.