Earlier this month, the world's leading minds in the field of supercomputing gathered to share ideas at SC '12, the annual supercomputing conference. Collaboration in this industry has the potential to revolutionize countless others in the next few decades, from regenerative medicine to clean energy.
According to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), supercomputing will spur creativity and breakthroughs around the world, leading to a myriad of technological and quality of life improvements.
"As supercomputing reaches new levels of advancement, it will play an increasingly critical role in driving innovation and impacting the well-being of society over the next 20 years," the IEEE said in a statement "For example, supercomputing is at the heart of intensive research that will allow for near perfect weather forecasts. With such a development, weather damage, such as destruction inflicted by devastating hurricanes and other natural disasters, could be significantly minimized."
The IEEE suggests that supercomputing will also lead to breakthroughs in alternative energy technologies that produce no harmful waste, as well as smartphones 20 times faster than today's leading mobile devices.
However, in order for all these possibilities to become realities, we must continue to develop new techniques for the thermal management of electronics. And as consumer products evolve, cutting-edge methods of joining dissimilar metals will be pivotal in manufacturing processes.
The internet practically revolutionized every industry on the planet and created a large number of new ones. Innovation in a single field can bring about a ripple effect where countless others are impacted. When such creativity is combined with the latest in industrial science knowledge, the entire world changes.