Blog Categories: HPC skills | Expert interviews | News
Blog Categories: HPC skills | Expert interviews | News
When the universe was young and bright: How HPC is opening a new chapter in astronomy
If you want to know what the past of our universe looks like, you have to talk to Anne Hutter. The astrophysicist at the University of Vienna can look back millions of years thanks to the latest telescope technology and supercomputing. In this interview, she explains why astrophysics is “back at the starting line” with the James Webb Space Telescope and how she uses Austrian HPC systems to model the early galaxies.
Energy efficiency in HPC
What is actually going on, energy-wise, in a supercomputing centre, and how can we compute more energy-efficiently? An FAQ for everyone who is not particularly keen on launching data centres into space, as Captain Musk is planning to do.
MUSICA is online
Austria’s most powerful supercomputer is now online, and companies can use it: MUSICA (Multi‑Site Computer Austria) was officially inaugurated on 3 July 2026. With 45.11 petaflop/s and 1,088 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, it is among the 100 fastest supercomputers in the global TOP500 ranking and delivers more than eight times the performance of Austria’s existing HPC systems VSC‑4 and VSC‑5 combined. It supports both large‑scale simulations and modern AI workloads.
Supercomputer against polarisation on social media
Computer scientist Stefan Neumann and his team study social media networks to understand how algorithms influence users’ opinions: on the ASC, they simulate how filter bubbles and polarisation emerge – and what options there are for influencing this development. What we then do with the results? That is something we, as a society, have to decide for ourselves, says Stefan in this interview. Fascinating.
When deserts fly: an Innsbruck scientist explores a hidden force in the sky
We know flying carpets from fairy tales – but flying deserts are real: thick layers of hot desert air that travel all the way to Europe. Once there, they settle like a lid over the atmosphere and influence our weather. Atmospheric scientist Fiona Fix-Hewitt is researching this little-known phenomenon using supercomputing and millions of virtual balloons. In this interview, she talks about the dynamics of the atmosphere and life with HPC systems.
Lightning meets AI
Isabell Stucke is on the trail of a very special weather phenomenon: upward lightning, bolts that shoot up from wind farms into the clouds and can cause significant damage. In this interview, the atmospheric scientist explains how she uses AI and supercomputing to get to the bottom of lightning risks.
“We can bring any computer to its knees”
Isabell Stucke is on the trail of a very special weather phenomenon: upward lightning, bolts that shoot up from wind farms into the clouds and can cause significant damage. In this interview, the atmospheric scientist explains how she uses AI and supercomputing to get to the bottom of lightning risks.
More women HPC experts on stage
Getting into High-Performance Computing (HPC) is just as straightforward – or just as challenging – for women as it is for men in Europe. The real hurdle, however, is visibility, particularly for women at the start of their careers, says HPC expert Marta Maj. The Women in HPC initiative is working to change that.
CUDA: strengths, limits and the best alternatives
Graphics processing units (GPUs) have become essential for artificial intelligence, simulations and data analysis. The vast majority of GPUs in use worldwide are made by NVIDIA – and on almost all of them runs the company’s own platform, CUDA. But what exactly hides behind those four letters, where does CUDA have the edge, and what alternatives exist?
“Women in HPC need more visibility”
Sometimes it’s good to be invisible – for example, when the ticket inspector shows up while you’re fare dodging. But as an expert for high-performance computing (HPC), visibility is essential for a career. That’s exactly what Tina Marc is committed to. She is a co-founder of the Central European Chapter of the global initiative Women in HPC (WHPC). In this interview, the IT project manager explains what women can expect from the community.
“Be bold, believe in your potential, stay curious”
There is a myth that has persisted for decades: high-performance computing (HPC) is only for men. Physicist and HPC pioneer Claudia Blaas-Schenner is one of the women disproving this tale. As a founding member of the Central European Chapter of the initiative Women in HPC (WHPC), she is a clear advocate for greater diversity. In this interview, Claudia talks about her own path in HPC and encourages young women to simply get started.
More women in HPC, better results for all
When Karina Pešatová returned from maternity leave in 2021, she noticed how few women were visible in high-performance computing (HPC). Rather than accept the status quo, she took action, founding the Central European Chapter of Women in HPC in 2024, uniting colleagues from four countries. In this interview, she explains how conferences, comics, and community can foster diversity in HPC – and why it’s worth making the extra effort to put women on stage.
Women in HPC: Global initiative empowering women in the industry
“Women can achieve anything they set their minds to!” A common belief, yet one that doesn’t hold true as often as we’d like. The gender pay gap persists, and far too few women enter high-performance computing, simply because no one told them early enough that they absolutely could. The global initiative Women in HPC (WHPC) supports women in joining forces and thriving in the field of high-performance computing.
“RAG is Prompt Engineering on Steroids”
Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) is a method for directly connecting a large language model (LLM) with external data. This helps reduce the much-dreaded hallucinations, and ensures the LLM’s answers remain up to date by drawing on current information, explain experts Martin Pfister, Thomas Haschka and Simeon Harrison in an interview with Bettina Benesch.
Unveiling climate models: students dive into HPC
Climate models are an essential part of modern society: Their results shape future scenarios, inform policy targets, and guide scientific discussions. Yet, for many people -including some climate scientists – these models remain mysterious black boxes. In the “Modeling and Data Analysis” class at the Department of Meteorology and Geophysics students went beyond theory and calculated their first models on the VSC-4 supercomputer.
When the universe was young and bright: How HPC is opening a new chapter in astronomy
If you want to know what the past of our universe looks like, you have to talk to Anne Hutter. The astrophysicist at the University of Vienna can look back millions of years thanks to the latest telescope technology and supercomputing. In this interview, she explains why astrophysics is “back at the starting line” with the James Webb Space Telescope and how she uses Austrian HPC systems to model the early galaxies.
Energy efficiency in HPC
What is actually going on, energy-wise, in a supercomputing centre, and how can we compute more energy-efficiently? An FAQ for everyone who is not particularly keen on launching data centres into space, as Captain Musk is planning to do.
MUSICA is online
Austria’s most powerful supercomputer is now online, and companies can use it: MUSICA (Multi‑Site Computer Austria) was officially inaugurated on 3 July 2026. With 45.11 petaflop/s and 1,088 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, it is among the 100 fastest supercomputers in the global TOP500 ranking and delivers more than eight times the performance of Austria’s existing HPC systems VSC‑4 and VSC‑5 combined. It supports both large‑scale simulations and modern AI workloads.
Supercomputer against polarisation on social media
Computer scientist Stefan Neumann and his team study social media networks to understand how algorithms influence users’ opinions: on the ASC, they simulate how filter bubbles and polarisation emerge – and what options there are for influencing this development. What we then do with the results? That is something we, as a society, have to decide for ourselves, says Stefan in this interview. Fascinating.
When deserts fly: an Innsbruck scientist explores a hidden force in the sky
We know flying carpets from fairy tales – but flying deserts are real: thick layers of hot desert air that travel all the way to Europe. Once there, they settle like a lid over the atmosphere and influence our weather. Atmospheric scientist Fiona Fix-Hewitt is researching this little-known phenomenon using supercomputing and millions of virtual balloons. In this interview, she talks about the dynamics of the atmosphere and life with HPC systems.
Lightning meets AI
Isabell Stucke is on the trail of a very special weather phenomenon: upward lightning, bolts that shoot up from wind farms into the clouds and can cause significant damage. In this interview, the atmospheric scientist explains how she uses AI and supercomputing to get to the bottom of lightning risks.
“We can bring any computer to its knees”
Isabell Stucke is on the trail of a very special weather phenomenon: upward lightning, bolts that shoot up from wind farms into the clouds and can cause significant damage. In this interview, the atmospheric scientist explains how she uses AI and supercomputing to get to the bottom of lightning risks.
More women HPC experts on stage
Getting into High-Performance Computing (HPC) is just as straightforward – or just as challenging – for women as it is for men in Europe. The real hurdle, however, is visibility, particularly for women at the start of their careers, says HPC expert Marta Maj. The Women in HPC initiative is working to change that.
CUDA: strengths, limits and the best alternatives
Graphics processing units (GPUs) have become essential for artificial intelligence, simulations and data analysis. The vast majority of GPUs in use worldwide are made by NVIDIA – and on almost all of them runs the company’s own platform, CUDA. But what exactly hides behind those four letters, where does CUDA have the edge, and what alternatives exist?