News on HPCN and the European Commission September-October 1998

The news magazines Primeur and VMW, prepare an update on all HPCN or medical Esprit projects in special issues that will be published in conjunction with the large IST event (the former Esprit/Telematics conference) in Vienna late November/early December of this year.

APEX, a European project aimed at showing the benefits of HPC in computational fluid dynamics has released an interactive multi-media presentation, which introduces CFD and HPC, shows results from two typical applications (a chemical reactor and a power station boiler) and guides the viewer through the investment decision process.

The EU-China HPCN industrial initiative launched two years ago and managed by the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) met in Beijing, 12-13 October to discuss practical ways on how China industries can benefit from European HPCN knowhow. The workshop was successful with several European companies tentatively agreeing contracts; one by the UK company ISL to sell their integral solutions package for datamining, and another by the Italian/UK company, Quadrics Supercomputers World, which is expected to set up collaboration with the Chinese company which produces the Dawning parallel machines. The EU-China HPCN initiative is sponsored and funded by the European Commission, the Chinese government and private companies from Europe and China. Most European participants at this workshop were from SMEs.

An Information day to promote and explain the content of the European Union's Framework 5, in the area of information society technologies (IST), was held in London UK, 23rd October. Organised by the Institute of European Trade and Technology (IETT), this seminar attracted over 560 people from industry and research institutions, although 80 of them never made it due to floods in the north of the country. They were presented with a showcase exhibition of previous Framework projects, and listened to Professor George Metakides, of EU-DGIII, promote potential opportunities in the IST programme worth 3.3BEcu over the next 4 years. There were also dissenting voices from the floor during question time, however. A common impression is that European initiatives only attract a small section of companies who were historically locked in and know how to work the system. These companies are perceived as being on a "gravy train" and may or may not be the most suitable for delivering the new information technology products for the "Citizen".

Three University Hospitals and a software technology provider are partnering with the Entice Technology Transfer Nodes (TTN) co-ordinator in a project, called CAMRA, for the improvement of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Analysis. The hospital end-users aim to optimize cardiac diagnosis through the combination of high performance computing with low cost analysis of magnetic resonance (MR) images. The project team is using multi-processor PC-compatible systems, that run under Windows NT, to turn Mayo Clinic's ANALYZE software into an enhanced analysis programme. For this purpose, the computer specialists are parallelizing existing serial algorithms, which will eventually allow the physician to shift from qualitative to quantitative image interpretation.

In June 1998, a project was set up by the British Technology Transfer Node (TTN) Entice to explore the potential offered by a new imaging modality, consisting of Tomographic Analysis with Scanning Microscopy (TASM). This revolutionary approach allows researchers to image below the surface of materials to show their three-dimensional microstructure. The basic technique originates from medical imaging practices, referred to as Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT). EIT images represent the changes in electrical conductivity occurring between various types of tissue. The new Scanning Thermal Microscopy (SThM) method goes one step further, since TASM images display the 3D spatial distribution of thermal conductivity. TASM enables industrial chemists to reveal material characteristics which are of vital importance for the modelling of polymer-based systems.