HPCN Technology Transfer Nodes unveiled at European EIT conference

With several projects including the Esprit PCI project under their belt, the CEC feels confident that HPCN technologies are mature and cost-effective in a wide variety of industrial sectors, such as consumer goods and advanced materials, where they have not been used extensively in the past. In many of these industrial sectors companies are either small or medium sized, SMEs. For these companies scalable HPCN systems seem to be the most appropriate technology.

Apart from concrete examples of previous HPCN activities within Esprit, presentations of new activities on how HPCN technologies can be accessed by SMEs via the Technology Transfer Nodes (TTNs), were given at the workshop. The approved TTNs span the whole European Union and there are two or three in the larger countries, which enables them to focus on regional as well as national services.

Metier-TTN co-ordination and interconnection

The TTNs are intended to be a fully connected network of facilities which would allow users to tap into expert knowledge throughout Europe when solving a particular problem. In order to connect local TTNs a management infrastructure Metier is to be put in place. It will facilitate exchange and dissemination of information within all the TTNs and provide help to any TTN which may experience difficulties.

The network will orchestrate press and awareness campaigns targeting SMEs in various industrial sectors. The infrastructure should be in place by early March with the programme in full swing by June to October, so watch this space.

Highlights from TTN presentations

There were numerous presentations at the workshop with each TTN speaker introducing their facilities and briefly indicating examples of joint projects with SMEs in their own country. For example, Mark Parsons from EPCC in Edinburgh listed the Industrial Process Optimization project, for manufacturing components, the architectural visualization project, the radiotherapy project and the warehouse for public prosecutions as some of the success stories of actions initiated by their TTN.

Anne-Marie Ros&eaigu;n from the Dutch TTN in Amsterdam, described their involvement with the cosmetic industry performing Lattice Boltzman simulations. The Danish told of their involvement in improving the meat quality, colour and taste of Danish bacon. This required the solution of a 10 million system of equations.

We were then told how ENEA in collaboration with the Bologna supercomputing facility are helping in Italy where 95% of all industry are SMEs and employing 76% of the workforce. The Biotitan, another TTN with Italian pedigree, is a multiside European organization which concentrates in bio-information using AVS -Advanced Video Surveilance. It is headed by Paolo Zanella the ex-director of CERN.

The VCPC TTN at Vienna according to Phillippe, have been involved in several projects including a study for improving metal foundries, restoration of damaged historical film, minimising pollution from transit lorry traffic through Austria, and an information system in predicting the Danube river water levels so it can be used to enable transport companies to schedule heavy industrial cargo across Europe.

The catalogue of applications given during the presentations are too numerous for all to be recalled, but taken together they provide a convincing demonstration of the pervasive nature and benefits of HPCN. With the funding of TTNs across Europe, the CEC has put an ambitious project in place. It is up to all good Europeans to exploit it and make it a success.