LUMI is a unique opportunity for companies for developing R&D activities and boosting innovation
LUMI, one of the EuroHPC world-class supercomputers and leading platforms for artificial intelligence, will be located at CSC’s data center in Kajaani, Finland. Operations will start this year. Up to 20% of LUMI’s resources will be available to industry and SMEs. Using this capacity is a remarkable opportunity for Finnish industrial life and for the whole society.
LUMI is a unique European endeavor, with ten European countries and the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) investing in one joint system. LUMI is set to boost research, employment, and competitiveness throughout Europe. LUMI will be one of the world’s best-known scientific instruments throughout its lifetime.
A great opportunity for companies
Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are based on machine learning which requires big data and powerful computing capacity. The design philosophy for LUMI was to create a platform which make the use of AI and traditional large-scale simulations combined with massive scale data analytics possible in solving one research problem.
Now Finnish companies will have a unique opportunity to utilize LUMI’s GPU (Graphic Processing Units) capacity for AI-related R&D activities via Business Finland’s AI Business program. The AI Business program is targeted at startup, SME, Midcap and large companies registered in Finland, and Finnish research organizations. Companies can apply for funding for their own development project or joint-project with other companies and research organizations. Foreign companies are welcome to join the Finnish AI ecosystem and partner up with Finnish companies and research organizations. The maximum value of a computing grant is 80 000 EUR. All this will result in more competitive global products and services in the near future.
Better products and services, increased competitiveness
Helsinki-based company Speechly is one of the companies which has been part of the piloting phase of the AI Business program. Speechly has developed a real-time spoken language understanding service first in the world. Speechly’s voice-control technology enables clients to speed-up service and product experience up to ten times. This saves money and improves both conversion and retention. With their Computing Grant project the company is looking for new competitive edge against big technology brands like Google, Apple and Amazon.
Tampere-based Neuro Event Labs was also part of the pilot phase. The company uses CSC computing capabilities to train multiple models, which use video and audio-based biomarker extractions in epilepsy diagnostics and beyond.
Tightened collaboration with VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland
Finland already has a long history of conducting front-line international research requiring great computational power in many areas of science and technology. Over the years, CSC and VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland, have been developing the required research environment and expertise in cooperation with our customer organizations. In the future, LUMI’s computing capacity will be available as part of VTT’s service portfolio including VTT’s collaboration projects with companies.
At the same time, VTT is starting to deploy a quantum computer to Finland. The establishment of a combined ecosystem of supercomputer and quantum technology in Finland highlights our position as a European and also global pioneer of high-performance computing and data management for research. Above all, investments in world-class technologies will significantly increase the opportunities and attractiveness of Finnish top-level research in the eyes of the international research community.
HPC generates tremendous revenues, profits and cost-savings shows a recent study
HPC (high-performance computing) usage also generates revenues, profits and cost-savings for R&D projects, shows a recent study (published 02/2021) conducted by Hyperion Research Ltd.
Hyperion Research examined the Return on Investment (ROI) of individual HPC projects and measured the amounts spent on the HPC resources compared with the projects’ financial and innovation returns. In their study they collected data from 763 projects across academic, government and industry sectors. The results were remarkable: according to the research, investing in HPC indicates substantial returns on investments for R&D projects. The investigated 763 projects averaged 507 USD (~ 417 EUR) in revenue per 1 USD invested in HPC and on average 47 USD (~ 39EUR) of profit or cost savings per 1 USD invested in HPC.
Consequently, using HPC often increases the quality of the product or service and increases competiveness and the results are can also be seen in the cash flow of the company using HPC in their R&D activities.