The convergence of High-Performance Computing (HPC), large-scale experimental data, and Artificial Intelligence is ushering in a new paradigm for eScience. At the RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS), we are leveraging the success of the supercomputer Fugaku to build a comprehensive, AI-native discovery platform for the next decade. This talk will outline our strategy, beginning with current breakthroughs and culminating in our vision for the post-exascale or “Zettascale” era with FugakuNEXT. The talk will present several case studies where the integration of AI with large-scale simulation on Fugaku has led to transformative results, achieving effective performance far beyond the hardware’s nominal capabilities in fields like earthquake simulation, materials science, and computational drug design. A key focus will be our TRIP-AGIS initiative, which aims to develop Generative AI and Foundation Models for Science to automate and accelerate the entire research cycle—from hypothesis generation to the design of robotic experiments.The core of this vision is FugakuNEXT, a next-generation supercomputer co-designed with NVIDIA and Fujitsu to be a premier platform for “AI for Science”. I will detail the system’s architectural targets and, just as importantly, our open and sustainable R&D model. This includes the development of “Virtual Fugaku,” a vendor-agnostic software stack designed to ensure portability across platforms from the cloud to future supercomputers. Finally, I will address the practical challenges of this new era, including our approach to building a secure, on-premise generative AI infrastructure, and look ahead to the integration of Quantum-HPC systems to tackle currently intractable problems.
Biography
Satoshi Matsuoka has been the director of RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS) since 2018. He is responsible for developing the supercomputer Fugaku which has become the fastest supercomputer in the world in all four major supercomputer rankings in 2020 and 2021 (Top500, HPCG, HPL-AI, Graph500), along with multitudes of ongoing cutting edge HPC research being conducted, including investigating Post-Moore era computing, especially the future FugakuNEXT supercomputer.
He holds Ph. D. from the University of Tokyo in 1993. He was a Professor at the Global Scientific Information and Computing Center (GSIC), the Institute of Science Tokyo (formerly known as the Tokyo Institute of Technology), the director of the joint AIST-Tokyo Tech. Real World Big Data Computing Open Innovation Laboratory (RWBC-OIL). He was the leader of the TSUBAME series of supercomputers that had also received many international acclaims at the Institute of Science Tokyo, where he still holds a professor position, to continue his research activities in HPC as well as scalable Big Data and AI.
He has written over 500 articles according to Google Scholar, and chaired numerous conferences, including the Technical Papers Chair and the Program Chair for ACM/IEEE Supercomputing 2009 and 2013 (SC09 and SC13) respectively as well as many other conference chairs, and the ACM Gordon Bell Prize selection committee chair in 2018.
He is a Fellow of ACM, ISC, JSSST (Japan Society for Software Science and Technology) and IPSJ (Information Processing Society of Japan). His accolades are the ACM Gordon Bell Prizes in 2011 & 2021; the IEEE-CS Sidney Fernbach Award in 2014 as well as the IEEE-CS Computer Society Seymour Cray Computer Engineering Award in 2022, both being the highest awards in the field of HPC, and the only individual to receive both awards. He is selected as one of the HPCwire 35 Legends by the HPC wire in 2024.
His longtime contribution for the computer science research was commended with the Medal of Honor with Purple ribbon by His Majesty the Emperor of Japan in 2022.