WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Energy says it has awarded approximately 1.6 billion supercomputing processor hours to 69 research projects.
Officials said the "cutting-edge" research projects will receive the processor time through the Energy Department's Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment, or INCITE, program.
"The INCITE program provides powerful resources to enable scientists and engineers to conduct cutting-edge research in just weeks or months, rather than the years or decades needed previously," the Energy Department said, noting the projects include such areas as climate change, alternative energy, life sciences and materials science.
"Computation and supercomputing are critical to solving some of our greatest scientific challenges," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "This year's INCITE awards reflect the enormous growth in demand for complex modeling and simulation capabilities, which are essential to improving our economic prosperity and global competitiveness."
Officials said selection of the 69 projects was based on peer review and computational readiness evaluations of their potential to advance scientific discovery. The supercomputing time was awarded at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
More information about the projects is available at http://www.er.doe.gov/ascr/incite/2010INCITEFactSheets.pdf.
