The inauguration ceremony of Leonardo, the supercomputer ranked fourth in the Top500 list of the fastest computers in the world, was held today, 24 November, at the Bologna Technopole, in the presence of the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella. The event was also attended by representatives of the main political, scientific and civil institutions involved.
During the inauguration ceremony of the supercomputer, the many possible applications of supercomputing for research and society were described. Fifty per cent of the computing power generated by Leonardo will be available to Italian research institutes and universities; the rest will be used by European researchers. CINECA staff also illustrated the main phases of the project, from the construction of the data centre to the installation of the supercomputer.
The Leonardo supercomputer project, in which SISSA is a partner together with the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), is led by CINECA and supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR), Regione Emilia Romagna and Europe.
SISSA Director Andrea Romanino commented "SISSA's role as a founding partner of the Leonardo project reflects its consolidated international visibility in numerical simulation in materials science, applied mathematics, astrophysics and physics and chemistry of biological systems. This visibility has been fostered by the decades-long collaboration with CINECA – which began in 1985 with the installation of the first satellite link in Italy between a supercomputer and a research group – and is also evidenced by the leading role that SISSA is playing in the PNRR, through its participation in the National Centre in High Performance Computing, which inauguration will follow that of Leonardo."
(Photo by Giacomo Maestri)