NIU STEM Cafe to explore affects of supercomputing on American science

DeKALB – The next Northern Illinois University STEM Cafe will explore how supercomputing will affect the course of American science.

The cafe will begin at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 9 at Fatty’s Pub and Grille, 1312 W. Lincoln Highway, DeKalb. Food and drinks will be available to buy.

Admission is free. Registration is encouraged.

During the STEM Cafe, attendees can learn about Argonne National Laboratory’s Aurora Exascale Supercomputer, supercomputing’s current state, and its potential scientific fields impact. The supercomputer is on track to be one of the world’s fastest.

The featured speaker is Michael E. Papka, Ph.D., University of Illinois Chicago Warren S. McCulloch professor of computer science and Argonne National Laboratory division director, deputy associate laboratory director and senior scientist.

”If every person on the planet was doing four math problems a second, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for just a little over a year, that is what Aurora can do in one second,” Papka said in a news release.

The supercomputer’s goal is to accelerate scientific research advancements, create complex climate models, crack cosmic problems and contribute to chronic condition cures. “It accelerates our ability to think,” Papka said in the release.

“Aurora will allow for research in traditional areas like climate science and the evolution of the universe, and then we will bring it to the more practical side. Things like designing better airplane engines, airfoils and drug designs. It’s meant to support many different things,” Papka said in the release.

”While our team continues to work to stabilize the full system for our scientific user community, we are very pleased to see how well the system performs at this point,” he said. “The early performance results underscore Aurora’s immense potential for scientific computing.”

NIU STEM Cafes are part of NIU STEAM and are designed to increase public awareness of the critical role that STEM fields play in everyday life.

For information or to register, visit go.niu.edu/stemcafe.