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New report calls for government funding of national agency for High Performance Computing


WEBWIRE

Wednesday November 09, 2005, KINGSTON, Ont. -- A report being released today calls on the federal government for a long-term funding commitment for High Performance Computing (HPC) and the establishment of a national agency to sustain and further build Canada’s world-class HPC infrastructure.

The report also warns that Canada may fall behind globally if the government does not take a leadership role in nurturing HPC, which is broadly defined as the use of “supercomputers” for research in such areas as drug development, astrophysics, aerospace, financial modeling, disease containment and nanotechnology.

C3.ca Association Inc. -- a national nonprofit group of volunteers in computational science, humanities and engineering, and which includes several Queen’s researchers -- is asking for a long-term funding commitment to help pursue the promise of HPC to produce more state-of-the-art technologies and research findings. Engines of Discovery: The 21st Century Revolution seeks to build on the $240 million investment made by the Federal government over the past few years and to maintain Canada’s world-leading networking and telecommunications infrastructure.

A proposed new national entity, IMPACT Canada, would be responsible for co-ordinating facilities, advising Canadian funding agencies, developing awareness and training programs and promoting international collaboration.

“This plan represents a major step for Canada,” says Dr. Kerry Rowe, Vice Principal (Research) of Queen’s University and Chair of the C3.ca’s Long-Range Plan Authors’ Panel. “After conferring with national and international experts, we are now able to present to the Canadian public a compelling case for the economic benefits and research opportunities that will be generated from a commitment in this area.”

C3.ca was founded to serve the needs of HPC user community from across Canada, embraces universities, colleges, industry and government and is supported in part through membership fees and significant contributions by the National Research Council.

“At a time when we are seeing increasing demands for the products of high performance computing, the collaborative approach of C3.ca is not only desirable, it is essential,” says Dr. Andrew Pollard, the driving force behind the High Performance Virtual Computing Laboratory (HPCVL) headquartered at Queen’s and a former president and past board chair of C3.ca. “Every university in Canada that isn’t already critically dependent on HPC will be in the future as we move into this exciting new age of discovery and learning.”

The plan is available for viewing in English and French at http://www.c3.ca/LRP/

For more information, or to arrange an interview with Dr. Andrew Pollard or Dr. Kerry Rowe, please call Sarah Withrow, Communications Officer, 613-533-3280 or Therese Greenwood, Manager of News and Media Services, at 613-533-6907.

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