Plenary Keynote - Alessandro Curioni
Opening Plenary Keynote
Tuesday July 12, 14:20 - 15:40 CET (Barcelona)
Session Chair: Stephen Yau, Arizona State University
What's Next in Computing: The Era of Accelerated Discovery
Computing is more important than ever in society today, and it is allowing researchers, companies, and governments to super-charge the scientific method – humanity’s most powerful and successful process for advancing our knowledge and solving complex problems. The world hasn’t run out of problems to solve. Be it global warming, food security, energy storage and so much more – we need science and cutting-edge technology to accelerate the discovery of new ways to tackle global challenges.
We’re at a moment in time where computing is poised to reshape just about every industry, field of study — and even society itself. Across the fields of AI, cloud, and quantum computing, we’ve seen substantial advancements. AI has emerged as a driver of automation for critical businesses processes. Cloud computing, and in particular hybrid cloud, has reached massive scale and agility which unlocks access to virtually limitless compute resources. And quantum computing has matured from a theoretical concept to practical systems with a roadmap to disrupt industries.
Separately, these technologies are capable of transforming business and society. But leveraging the convergence of AI, cloud, and quantum will fundamentally change the way we innovate and discover. The term we use to describe this convergence of technologies is accelerated discovery, and it is based on an unprecedented acceleration of the scientific method.
In my presentation, I will discuss this convergence of AI, hybrid cloud, and quantum computing, its implications for implementing the scientific method, and how we can leverage it all to accelerate the discovery of solutions to deep problems. As a particular example, I will describe how novel sustainable materials can be discovered at unprecedented rates to help society tackle challenges from climate change to pandemics.
Brief Biography
Dr. Alessandro Curioni is an IBM Fellow, Vice President of IBM Research Europe and Africa and Director of the IBM Research lab in Zurich, Switzerland. He is responsible for IBM corporate research in Europe and leads IBM’s global research strategy in Accelerated Discovery and Security. Dr. Curioni is an internationally recognized leader in the area of high-performance computing and computational science, where his innovative thinking and seminal contributions have helped solve some of the most complex scientific and technological problems in healthcare, aerospace, consumer goods and electronics. He was a member of the winning team recognized with the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize in 2013 and 2015. His primary research interests currently include accelerating the rate of discovery with AI, quantum computing, and novel computing paradigms. He is a member of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences.