Pawsey gets funding commitment from WA gov

The Western Australian government will spend $22.4 million over five years supporting the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, in return for access to its facilities.

Those facilities include the country’s and southern hemisphere’s fastest HPC machine, Setonix, also recognised as one of the least-polluting supercomputers in the Green500 list.

The 500-node, 65,000 core Setonix went live in July.

The centre’s executive director Mark Stickells said the funding commitment would support the delivery of HPC expertise to “a wide range of agencies, organisations, researchers and communities”.

“The WA government’s support continues the state’s strategic investment in the technologies and expertise essential to tackle complex challenges such as climate change, food security, and energy transition,” he said.

Pawsey chair Tim Shanahan said the funding would help Western Australia attract and retain highly skilled HPC professionals, build research ties internationally and support innovation in the WA economy.

“The continued support of the WA government, along with the investment of the Australian Government in our major technology refresh, ensures Australia remains at the frontier of science, technology and digital innovation," Shanahan said.

The funding will also let the centre expand its outreach and education programs for schools and under-represented communities, as well as supporting more industry engagement.

Science minister Roger Cook said: “By continuing our investment in Pawsey, the WA government is helping to position the state as a national and international leader in high performance computing, and supporting capability building in areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.”