Editor’s Note: Thomas Bowles, PhD. is the Science Advisor to Governor Bill Richardson, on assignment from Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he served as Chief Science Officer.

    Until recently supercomputers were only available to scientists and high-end companies. The ability to simulate complex systems, such as new commercial aircraft, is of the utmost importance to large businesses. However, small-to-medium size businesses have been disadvantaged since they have not had access to supercomputers.  And while the work done with the world's fastest government computers was critical to our national defense, the public did not have the opportunity to access these computers to do non-defense work. 

    Not anymore.  The state of New Mexico has changed all that with connecting the state's supercomputer, named Encanto, to the first eight, out of 33 total, access points called gateways.  The New Mexico Computing Applications Center (NMCAC) has started a program that will be truly revolutionary in the high-tech workplace environment in this state.

    The supercomputer is the fastest publicly available supercomputer in the world - and it's right here in New Mexico.  It can do 172 trillion calculations per second.  It's now available to business, industry, education and individuals the entire state over.   The age of the supercomputer has come to New Mexico.

    The advent of the supercomputer has two critical advantages for our state: one, it brings the fastest high performance computing to our residents, to our scientists and to our industry; and two, it gives the rural parts of our state the same advantages as Albuquerque, or New York for that matter.

    There are now access sites - gateways - not only at our major research universities (UNM, NM Tech, and NM State University), but also at Eastern and Western New Mexico Universities, San Juan College, and Santa Fe Community College. And soon there will be gateways at all our other colleges and branch campuses across the state.  In virtually every part of the state, you will find a gateway that can drive a technological revolution at our colleges and universities. 

    Access to technology, and the most recent at that, can drive workplace innovation, exploration, and collaboration. Each gateway is equipped not only with access to Encanto, but is also connected to the statewide network of gateways with high-definition videoconferencing and 3D stereo visualization (think Avatar technology applied to education and economic development). This system will connect New Mexico education, economic development, businesses, and R&D institutions all together to share what is best at each site and to work together in new and creative ways.

    How will the supercomputer make our lives better?  In three ways, at least: 

    One, it is a fantastic educational tool for students in our schools and colleges.  Think of the supercomputer as the most enlightened educational technique available.  Astronomy students can take a journey through the universe to understand its structure and evolution.  Student nurses can learn emergency response to accidents in a 3D virtual experience before practicing on real patients. Students can learn the latest techniques (and create new ones) for rendering special effects and creating digital films. And students can learn valuable real-world skills in developing clean energy technologies and learning how to model and optimize clean manufacturing processes.

    Second, the research opportunities for our professors, researchers, and students are truly remarkable.  Already thousands of “jobs” have been run by our universities that are advancing our understanding of climate change, developing ways for nanotechnology to improve our lives, and to understand the causes of diseases. And access to the supercomputer has made our universities more competitive for federal research dollars.

    Third, our businesses now have the highest technical capability for modeling their designs and processes. This provides a great way to grow high-tech businesses in New Mexico and to attract new businesses to the state. A renewable energy company can better predict the wind, a crucial ability to use wind energy to its maximum potential. Animated characters for the next major Hollywood film can be designed in Gallup or Silver City (or at any of the gateways).  And a genomics research institution in Santa Fe can develop the next stage in understanding how DNA sequences determine our individual susceptibility to disease.

    So you see, the supercomputer will significantly change the high-tech environment in the state while at the same time creating a powerful network among our colleges, businesses, and communities. This will lead to the creation of high-tech jobs and the workforce needed for those jobs.  Our commitment to a statewide supercomputing grid is about to pay off for everyone in the state.