Since the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium was formed at the onset of the pandemic to open up access to supercomputers for researchers across the planet, it advanced more than 90 coronavirus-combatting research projects and almost doubled its available computing capacity.
Now, the group is moving on to the next chapter.
The public-private partnership, launched in March by the White House, Energy Department and IBM, entered what insiders on Monday deemed its “second phase,” which will prioritize research projects that hold promise to help boost patient outcomes in the next half-year.
“After eight months, we've certainly learned a lot about what we can do with the consortium and the kind of research that it's been able to generate,” IBM Systems General Manager, Strategy and Development Jamie Thomas told Nextgov Monday. She added that this latest move marks a sense of “renewed focus” aimed at driving additional proposals and interest.
Thomas has had a long tenure at IBM, where she first started as a computer programmer years ago. She’s now managing a large innovation team inside of the company that brings products to the market, including a lot of the hardware underpinning some of the supercomputers the consortium uses. With a front seat view to the ongoing work, she offered a glimpse into how it’s evolved so far, potential research the second wave will incorporate, and hopes that the broader effort might pave the way for a national “science reserve” in the future.
From Phase I to II
The COVID-19 HPC Consortium came together swiftly in March, not long after the first w ..
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