SCIENCE

The research work "High Scalability Multipole Method. Solving Half Billion of Unknowns" conducted by Spanish researchers, has been awarded with the prestigious PRACE AWARD’09 for the best scientific paper presented at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC'09), meeting of reference in this discipline. The award is the result of a joint work from a group of researchers at the Supercomputing Center of Galicia (CESGA), the University of Vigo and University of Extremadura.

The PRACE AWARD 2009 winners are José Carlos Mouriño, Andrés Gómez, José Manuel Taboada, Luís Landesa, José Manuel Bértolo, Fernando Obelleiro y José Luís Rodríguez from the Supercomputing Center of Galicia (CESGA), Universidad de Extremadura and Universidad de Vigo, Spain. The award ceremony will take place next June 23 in Hamburg, Germany, during the Opening Session of the ISC'09. 

PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe) involves governments, funding agencies and national supercomputing centers in Europe with the aim to create the Pan-European Infrastructure for Supercomputing and make of Europe the leading power in global high performance computing, hence the importance of this distinction. Spain is represented at PRACE by the National Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS). The PRACE Award 2009 drew a record submission of 56 papers. The winner was selected by the ISC Award Committee, led by Michael Resch, Director of HLRS. 

The work done by this group of researchers developed methods for high scalability in computational electromagnetism for application in very-high-performance supercomputers. With this method the group of researchers achieved the world record in computational electromagnetism, giving the solution to the largest problem analyzed ever (500 million of unknowns), solved last January at CESGA’s supercomputer Finis Terrae, which is partially funded by ERDF. Moreover, this method has been used for analyzing the radar behaviour of large commercial aircrafts like the Airbus 380 with a level of precision never before achieved. 

Jury stressed the technical complexity and relevance of applications.- 
The PRACE AWARD jury stressed not only the interest of large electromagnetic simulations for the design of industrial products that integrate high-tech electronic equipment and its importance to understand and reduce the impact of electromagnetic fields on humans, but also the computational complexity of the technical work done and its application to solve complex problems, paving the way for bigger models and new computational challenges. 

More information about the award: 
http://www.prace-project.eu/news/prace-award-2009-winner-announced 
http://www.supercomp.de/isc09/