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The objectives of the RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS) are threefold, centered around supercomputing: one is to target high performance computation itself as a scientific objective, or namely, the "Science of Computing"; another is to apply the enormous computational power thus obtained to solve difficult scientific problems, or namely the "Science by Computing"; finally, to collaborate with other scientific disciplines that contribute to advances in both sciences, or namely, the "Science for Computing." Our goal is to be recognized as one of the global leadership research centers to advance high-end computational science in this regard.

Computational science employs multitudes of methodologies to essentially recreate various phenomena as computational activities inside machines, thereby allowing to challenge difficult problems encountered by mankind. For example, we could model a phenomenon by a set of physical/mathematical formulas, and the machine-driven solution to the formulas will result in direct "simulation" of the phenomenon; alternatively, we could analyze the massive data measured on a phenomenon by scientific instruments, and further extrapolate future trends, or so-called "data science" methodology; furthermore, we could train our "artificial intelligence" to attain higher-level insights on the data, both simulated and/or analyzed. Here supercomputers will accelerate all such methodologies by many orders of magnitude, allowing synthesis of innovations to tackle the most difficult problems that are of interest to the greater society, and R-CCS intends to be at the forefront of such activities.

Moreover, innovative Information Technologies (IT) researched and developed to advance supercomputing is not only applicable to itself, but rather are the bleeding-edge technologies to advance the entire IT as a whole, from Cloud to the Edge, and thus will contribute to the massive improvement of the economy and our daily lives that are now heavily reliant on IT. We intend to collaborate with other leadership centers of the world to play a central role in advancing IT for the society at large.

The supercomputer "Fugaku" we have developed is the fruition of our research activities, and in June 2020, it became the world's first supercomputer to be crowned world number one in four supercomputer rankings, an unprecedented feat. Moreover, it has been deployed a year in advance to combat the new coronavirus, resulting in groundbreaking results in both treatment and mitigation of the transmission of the virus. We will continue our efforts to advance and achieve widespread use of Fugaku and its technology, and to promote research for the next generation of Science of, by, and for Computing.

photo:Satoshi Matsuoka, Director, RIKEN CCS
Satoshi Matsuoka
Director, RIKEN Center for Computational Science