CalcUA is an interdisciplinary project between several departments at the University of Antwerp in which mathematicians, informaticians, linguistic specialists, biomedical scientists, physicians and chemists are participating. Complex calculations which at present might soon take a year, now can be reduced to a few hours using the computer cluster. The CalcUA is transforming the University of Antwerp into a Center of Excellence.

This opens a wide perspective of new and ground-breaking research horizons. Through computer simulations for instance Purkinje cells, the nerve cells of the cerebellum, can disclose their secrets. These in silico experiments will contribute to the research that tries to pinpoint the function of the cerebellum.

Physicians are investigating very small nanostructures such as quantum particles that are applied in lasers and carbon nano tubes which are used as components of electronic transmitters at nanometer level. The supercomputer will be used in chemistry to find out more about plasms for gas discharges applied in films to cover materials and to produce flat plasm screens.

In addition, the supercomputer will pay services in searching methods to reconstruct complex 3D objects through indirect measurements such as gas supplies in the surface or a cancer tumour in the human body, as well as in optimizing complex networks like a traffic or data network. The informatics department will have the opportunity to better support other research teams, for instance in defining the geometric structure of biomolecules such as proteines, or in detecting and comparing toxicological data via micro-arrays.

Linguistics research will evolve through the application of self-learning techniques using artificial intelligence. As such computers will be able to generate knowledge from text.

Ten percent of the supercomputer capacity will be reserved to the industry. Commercial collaboration with the industry has not yet been made concrete but contacts are being established with the petrochemical and pharmaceutical sectors. Via interuniversitary science groups, other universities in Belgium or abroad, can be partners in discovering the benefits of CalcUA.