SANJITA SRINATH

Superman. 🦸 Meet computing. 🖥️ Enter, supercomputing. 

So what exactly is supercomputing? And why is it so important? 

Supercomputers are not your average PCs; they’re the Olympians of the computational world, engineered to handle staggering volumes of data and execute complex calculations at unprecedented speeds. Their prowess lies in their ability to tackle tasks that regular computers cannot fathom, from simulating weather patterns and predicting climate changes to modeling molecular structures, exploring outer space, and unlocking the secrets of the human genome. What can take a regular computer hours or even days to compute, a supercomputer can do in a flash. 

Recently, at the North Carolina School of Science and Math, I attended my Online Weekend, where I spent my day learning about super-computing, the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, and exactly how to write one command in. “Hello World”. Cliche, yes. But intriguing? Of course. I started my day in Mr. Gotwals’ classroom learning about high performance computing and the history of NSFNET, now called ACCESS and then finally logging on to the supercomputer itself.

While my experience on the computer itself was only limited to outputting “Hello World”, the classic first time program, I’m so excited to learn more about supercomputing and possibly get a chance to use it more substantively in future research endeavors!