Varsity project to create a virtual Saudi Arabia |
|
Saturday, Jul 11, 2009
Gulf News
Dubai: One of the world's fastest and most powerful computer clusters commenced operations last week [July 2] at the Munich Centre for Advanced Computing (MAC) in southern Germany with the goal of providing the hardware for an ambitious project called "Virtual Arabia".
The project aims to put together a detailed virtual profile of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. "Such an environment will allow the user to look both above and underneath the earth surface in an integrated way," said Dr Hans Joachim Bungartz, professor at the Department for Informatics at the centre and project leader, speaking at the official opening of the centre.
The MAC is a research cluster of the University of Technology Munich, which has signed a cooperation agreement with the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust) in Jeddah for a period of four years.
Kaust has committed $21 million (Dh77 million) for the project in Munich - Virtual Arabia - plus an environment-related carbon dioxide research project. The University and the Federal State of Bavaria will add one million euros annually.
"The goal of this project is to develop a virtual environment for the interactive visual exploration of Saudi Arabia," explains Bungartz.
Researchers will be able to interactively explore three-dimensional structures and dynamic seismic processes. "The researchers can also study atmospheric change and effects of built or planned infrastructure in a comprehensive way. The application will allow essentially all Kaust research institutes to use the functionality," Bungartz says.
By using this kind of advanced computer imaging technology, Saudi Arabia wants to make exploration of new oil and gas fields more effective. The commercial factors behind the project aside, new processes of virtual reality are capable of predicting certain changes in geology and climate and the impact of man-made structures.
The researchers are also examining the possibility of using empty oil wells as disposal sites for climate-damaging carbon dioxide.
The Munich heavy-duty computer HLRB II - a SGI Altix system by Silicon Graphics running on a Linux Enterprise Server operating system - is based on a cluster of 9,700 core processors, which provides the system with a peak performance of 62 teraflops per second, which is 2,600 times faster than today's fastest available personal computer.
By Arno Maierbrugger, Staff Reporter
© Gulf News 2009. All rights reserved.
Zawya is a distributor (and not a publisher) of content supplied by third parties and subscribers. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by those third parties, including information providers, subscribers or other users of the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of the Company. The Company neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on the Service by anyone other than authorized Service employee spokespersons while acting in their official capacities. The Company is not responsible for any infringement of intellectual property rights or breach of any applicable law or regulation, including regulation in relation to financial services or the distribution of financial products, defamation, data protection, telecommunications (including regulations relating to excessive use, spamming or other abusive activities) or obscene, offensive or illegal content). Under no circumstances will the Company be liable for any loss or damage caused by a member's reliance on information obtained through the Service. It is the responsibility of member to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through the Service. Please seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding the evaluation of any specific information, opinion, advice or other content.
Read the full Member Agreement
http://www.zawya.com/legal/NewsLetter.cfm?name=disclaimer
Comment on this article 
Loading ...-
Zawya encourages you to add a comment to this discussion. You agree that when you add content to this discussion your comments will not:
1.1 Contain any material which is libelous or defamatory of any person, is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory or causes damage to the reputation of any person or organisation.
1.2 Promote sexually explicit material, violence, discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age or any illegal activity.
1.3 Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
1.4 Be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
1.5 Be used to impersonate any person, to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person, or be likely to deceive any person.
1.6 Give the impression that they represent Zawya.
1.7 Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse. - The content posted on www.zawya.com is created by members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of Zawya. Zawya reserves the right to review all comments prior to posting and edit or delete any contribution, but Zawya is not responsible for and can not be held liable for any content posted by members of the public on www.zawya.com.
- Zawya is not responsible for the availability or content of any third party sites that are accessible through www.zawya.com. Any links to third party websites from www.zawya.com do not amount to any endorsement of that site by Zawya and any use of that site by you is at your own risk.
- By submitting your comment, you hereby give Zawya the right, but not the obligation, to post, air, edit, exhibit, telecast, webcast, re-use, publish, reproduce, use, license, print, distribute or otherwise use your comments worldwide, in perpetuity.
Stories
Companies
| Company Name | Country | Industry |
| Consolidated Contractors Company | Overseas | Construction and Design |
| Saudi Telecom | Saudi Arabia | Telecommunications Services |
| Saudi Binladin Group | Saudi Arabia | Construction and Design |
| Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company - Saudi Arabia | Saudi Arabia | Construction and Design |
| Ministry of Health - Saudi Arabia | Saudi Arabia | Ministries and Municipalities |
| Zuhair Fayez Partnership Consultants | Saudi Arabia | Construction and Design |
| Department of Economic Development | UAE | Regulatory and Administrative Bodies |
| Oman Insurance Company | UAE | Insurance |
| Dubai Electricity and Water Authority | UAE | Electric Utilities |
| Nissan Motor Egypt | Egypt | Transportation Products |
Projects
| Project Name | Country | Sector |
| ADNOC/ConocoPhillips - Sour Gas Fields Development - Shah Field | UAE | Oil and Gas |
| ENEC - Nuclear Power Plant | UAE | Power and Water |
| SATORP - Jubail Refinery and Petrochemical Complex | Saudi Arabia | Oil and Gas |
| Takreer - Ruwais Refinery Expansion | UAE | Oil and Gas |
| Aramco/Dow Chemical - Ras Tanura Integrated Refinery and Petrochemicals Complex | Saudi Arabia | Oil and Gas |
| Abu Dhabi Ports Company - Khalifa Port and Industrial Zone (KPIZ) | UAE | Infrastructure |
| Qatar Foundation - Sidra Medical and Research Center | Qatar | Real Estate |
| IGD - Gasco - Habshan 5 Gas Processing Plant | UAE | Oil and Gas |
| Emirates Aluminium (EMAL) - Smelter Complex - Phase 1 | UAE | Industry |
| Abu Dhabi DOT - Abu Dhabi Metro | UAE | Infrastructure |