NASA has launched a competition for computer programmers to modify the agency’s design software to speed up operations by 10,000 times on NASA’s Pleiades supercomputer.
The High Performance Fast Computing Challenge calls on participants to reduce the computational time of the FUN3D software without affecting accuracy in an effort to boost NASA’s aviation research, the space agency said Tuesday.
“This challenge is specifically targeted to speed up the [computational fluid dynamics] portion of our aerospace research,” said Michael Hetle, program executive of NASA’s Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program.
“Some concepts are just so complex, it’s difficult for even the fastest supercomputers to analyze these models in real time,” Hetle added.
HPFCC is open for U.S. citizens over 18 years old who can download the FUN3D code, analyze performance issues and identify ways to speed up the software.
The program offers two opportunities to compete as well as cash prizes of up to $55,000 in total for the first and second placers under the two categories.
HPFCC is supported by open prize platform provider HeroX and programming competition administrator TopCoder.
