Launch of supercomputer Leonardo: what it could mean for sustainable development and smart cities
One of the most powerful supercomputers in the world – and definitely Europe’s largest – was recently unveiled in Bologna, Italy. Powerful machine Leonardo (which aptly means “lion-hearted”, and is also the name of the famous Italian artist, engineer and scientist Leonardo da Vinci) is a €120 million system that promises to utilise artificial intelligence to undertake “unprecedented research”, according to the European Commission. Plus, the system is sustainably-focused, and equipped with tools to enable a dynamical adjustment of power consumption. It also uses a water-cooling system for increased energy efficiency.
“We have started fostering a formidable state-of-the-art computing infrastructure for the next decades,” says Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth. “It will act as a catalyst to further boost our scientific excellence and industrial creativity and make Europe a first-choice place to attract and produce ground-breaking research and innovation.”
Let’s pause for a moment. A supercomputer, ranked the fourth most powerful in the Top 500 list, is in European ownership. But what does this mean for the continent?
The power of supercomputer Leonardo, according to stakeholders
Leonardo, according to the European Commission, was developed and assembled in Europe. Its joint investment is funded by the Commission, the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research, and the CINECA consortium of five more participating EuroHPC countries (Austria, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia). Once the mega computer is fully operational, it will have a computing power of nearly 250 petaflops, which means it can make 250 million billion calculations per second. To put it in perspective, the latest Apple Neural Engine can only process up to 15.8 trillion operations per second. Here’s a helpful guide on large numbers if you would like to take a second to take in all these digits.
Thanks to its tremendous brain power, Leonardo will be able to conduct research into cancer and drug discovery, and will be able to do research to understand the functioning of the human brain.
Utilising supercomputer brain power for sustainable development
The European Commission also states that Leonardo will be used to discover clean energy technologies to do more precise climate modelling. Leonardo will also assist in predicting and monitoring natural disasters and pandemics. In case this all sounds a bit far-fetched, read more about how supercomputers are getting us closer to a Covid-19 vaccine here.
How Leonardo can be used benefit the development of smart and resilient city projects
The potential of supercomputer Leonardo is clear, which is why one can argue that its power should also be utilised for developing smart and resilient city projects. Kawasaki in Tokyo, for example, signed a contract with Japanese IT conglomerate Fujitsu in June last year to connect citizens and businesses with a vision of a ‘future city’.
Ways in which Leanardo can contribute to smart cities includes empowering energy research, monitoring air pollution, smarter design and planning, and augmenting transportation. According to Dr Jeremy Chan of the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, supercomputers are “helping urban planners run simulations, make predictions and build models, bringing the dream of a smart city closer to reality.” Why should Leonardo be any different?
