Hopes, Progress, Challenges – High Performance Computing in the Life Sciences
ICT for Life Sciences Forum: Professor Peter Taylor, Director, VLSCI
6.00 pm Thursday 27 October (preceded by refreshments from 5.00 pm)
The Auditorium, Melbourne Brain Centre, The University of Melbourne, cnr Royal Parade & Genetics Lane, Parkville.
High-performance computing (HPC) offers much to many disciplines. More traditionally used in the physical sciences and engineering, its potential is increasingly being recognized in the life sciences. Hopes extend from delivering precision medicine via genomics to understanding everything from brain function and disorders to the structure of plant cell walls through modelling and simulation, and considerable progress has already been made on many fronts. I will review the capabilities of the Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative (VLSCI) and its roles in the computational life sciences, with reference not only to realising some of the hopes, but also dealing with some of the challenges. Such challenges range from the specialised - how to effectively utilize many processors in different types of life sciences computation or how to deal with massive data sets, to the more general - how do we ensure a supply of appropriately skilled people for the computational life sciences as well as minimising the environmental impact of large-scale computational activity? Since this event is a forum, I plan to devote considerable time to discussion of these and other questions with audience members.
To register for this free event and view additional information please visit the ICT for Life Sciences Forum website