KAU's Aziz pushes Saudi Arabia to the forefront of supercomputing
The High Performance Computing Centre at KAU is an example of the university's investment and commitment to transforming the kingdom into a knowledge-based economy. The Aziz supercomputer - one of the most advanced of its kind in the Middle East - is used to support research in areas ranging from meteorology and aeronautics, to biosciences and smart cities.
Built in partnership with technology giant Fujitsu, it provides research teams with the capacity to collect and process huge amounts of data at super-fast speeds.
"The level of expertise and infrastructure in high performance computing will determine the competitiveness of a nation and its global standing," explains Iyad Kateb, director of KAU's High Performance Computing Centre. "The data generated from all spheres of life are growing 'big' and high-performance computing is becoming an essential tool in all areas of science - engineering, technology, national defence and society."
It also means KAU can forge partnerships with institutions keen to use its supercomputing capacity, linking to remote organisations via a cloud system hosted at the HPC Centre.
