A*STAR IHPC and IDA join to develop world-class cloud computing-powered technological solutions to benefit local ICT companies

Cloud solutions to accelerate local ICT companies' adoption of technologies and overcome end-user challenges faced by the ICT industry

A*STAR's Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) inked an agreement on the 28^th of August to jointly develop world-class cloud computing-powered technological solutions to benefit local ICT companies.

This partnership aims to promote local ICT companies' adoption of cloud-based technologies in their product and service development, as well as business operations towards greater productivity and competitiveness. It also serves to develop a vibrant local infocomm sector and hone Singapore's overall economic competitiveness.  

Both parties will work hand-in-hand with the infocomm sector, through IDA's extensive industry reach under the Technology Evaluation Programme (TEP) together with IHPC's research & development capabilities to identify and tackle challenges and issues.

Under the agreement, IDA will match-make IHPC's expertise to companies with relevant needs to adopt cloud-based technological solutions on the next generation broadband network. IHPC will leverage on its strengths in computational modelling and simulation, and data analysis to offer consultation to these businesses. It will ride on IDA's Cloud Computing and Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN) infrastructure to power and accelerate the entire solution-creation process.

Examples of IHPC's technologies that can be leveraged by local ICT companies include:

• Big Data Analysis: IHPC researchers are developing cloud-based platforms and tools to enable businesses to run various data analytics with better performance and at less cost compared to traditional IT structure^[1]. The speed, reliability and feasibility of large scale data processing could be improved by dynamically optimising and scheduling the computational processes on cloud infrastructure such as Amazon EC2, S3, or Windows Azure. Such technologies in turn could be applied to a wide spectrum of areas such as aerospace, transport, surveillance, and healthcare.
• Brand-Centric Social Media Analysis: IHPC scientists are working on a social media analyser to help customer-facing organisations to monitor, track and analyse near-to-real time social media perceptions about their businesses and identify emerging pertinent social media trends. It also allows fine tailoring of these tools and methods for specific organisations to achieve greater accuracy of results.

• Complex Systems Modelling: IHPC scientists have won the top prize from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2013 for scalable complex modelling, which involves using an analyser of multiple simulated scenarios to enable companies, for example, in the transport or logistic industries, to make faster decisions (such as significantly reducing turnaround time of 9 hours to 30 minutes) so as to achieve lower costs and enhance productivity.

"The collaboration between IHPC and IDA will promote the use of cloud-based services and technologies, and enhance the productivity and competitiveness of local businesses. We envisage the availability of such resources will lower entry barriers of capital investment, and allow quicker idea-to-market implementation. IHPC will also offer its expertise in data analysis, computational modelling and simulation to ICT companies to strengthen innovation and deepen capabilities in developing solutions," said Professor Alfred Huan, Executive Director of IHPC.

"This collaboration is an on-going effort by IDA in engaging local research institutions and institutes of higher learning under the Technology Evaluation Programme (TEP), which aims to facilitate the translation of ICT technologies from research labs into viable commercial solutions. We look forward to working with IHPC in meeting the technology needs of our local ICT industry, especially in cloud computing related areas. " said Mr. Khoong Hock Yun, Assistant Chief Executive of IDA.

JOINTLY ISSUED BY THE AGENCY FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH (A*STAR) AND THE INFOCOMM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE (IDA)

About the Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC)

As a national research institute supported by A*STAR through its Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC), the Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) was established in April 1998 to provide leadership in high performance computing as a strategic resource for scientific inquiry and industry development. IHPC seeks to power discoveries through advanced methodologies, techniques and new tools in modelling, simulation and visualisation. Its core research areas are in the realm of complex-coupled systems, mechanics and fluid dynamics, large-scale systems, digital modelling, adaptive and collaborative computing, data mining and analysis, computational electronics and electromagnetics, and computational materials science and chemistry.

For more information about IHPC, please visit http://www.ihpc.a-star.edu.sg.

About the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)

The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is the lead agency for fostering world-class scientific research and talent for a vibrant knowledge-based and innovation-driven Singapore. A*STAR oversees 14 biomedical sciences and physical sciences and engineering research institutes, and six consortia & centres, located in Biopolis and Fusionopolis as well as their immediate vicinity.

A*STAR supports Singapore's key economic clusters by providing intellectual, human and industrial capital to its partners in industry. It also supports extramural research in the universities, and with other local and international partners.