Accelerating scientific discovery through computation and visualization

The rate of scientific discovery can be accelerated through computation and visualization. This acceleration results from the synergy of expertise, co mputing tools, and hardware for enabling highperformance computation, infor mation science, and visualization that is provided by a team of computation and visualization scientists collaborating in a peer-to-peer effort with t he research scientists. In the context of this discussion, high performance refers to capabilities beyond the current state of the art in desktop computing. To be effective i n this arena, a team comprising a critical mass of talent, parallel computi ng techniques, visualization algorithms, advanced visualization hardware, a nd a recurring investment is required to stay beyond the desktop capabiliti es. This article describes, through examples, how the Scientific Applications a nd Visualization Group (SAVG) at NIST has utilized high performance paralle l computing and visualization to accelerate condensate modeling, (2) fluid flow in porous materials and in other complex geometries, (3) flows in susp ensions, (4) x-ray absorption, (5) dielectric breakdown modeling, and (6) d endritic growth in alloys.