BSC to demonstrate the power of supercomputing at the MWC

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) will have a prominent presence at the 2024 edition of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), considered one of the world's leading events on technology and connectivity, which is being held at Fira Barcelona between 26 and 29 February. The BSC will be represented with two large installations in the spaces that the Generalitat de Catalunya and Mobile World Capital Barcelona will have at the MWC and will present 25 technologies developed at the centre to show how supercomputing is essential today to advance science and engineering.

Catalonia stand of the Generalitat de Catalunya

Supercomputing, thanks to the BSC, will occupy a privileged space in the demonstration area that the Generalitat de Catalunya will have at the MWC. With the slogan 'Catalonia: shaping the future with supercomputing', a unique proposal will be exhibited with an installation that uses the metaphor of the grain of sand to explain the importance and transforming power of supercomputing to respond to the great global challenges and build a more humane and sustainable society of the future.

Through a tour of three pixel-free installations (without screens) in which sand and stones are the protagonists, the demo invites you to discover the past, present and future of supercomputing and its impact on the resolution of strategic challenges in the fields of earth and life sciences, technological sovereignty and the presence of all languages in the digital era, among others.

In the words of Josep M. Martorell, the associate director of the BSC, "with the installation we are presenting at the MWC we seek to explain that supercomputing is one of the key scientific and technological vectors in Catalonia, and we wanted to do so in a striking, attractive way. The aim is to make people aware of the extraordinary capacity of supercomputers and for any visitor to leave with the idea that supercomputing is something important in Catalonia.”

Apart from the installation in the demonstration area, the BSC will also have a space in the stand of the Generalitat where 25 technologies developed at the centre will be presented, with each day of the congress dedicated to a different area. The 26th will be dedicated to the new generation of open source processors based on RISC-V technology (8 technologies); the 27th to health and personalised medicine (4 technologies); the 28th to AI and language technologies (7 technologies); and the 29th to climate, air quality and the development of more sustainable cities (8 technologies).

Mobile World Capital Barcelona stand

The BSC will also have a prominent place in the Mobile World Capital Barcelona foundation's space, which in this case will feature a prototype of a digital twin that, through the power of supercomputing, aims to generate virtual models of the human body for research into health and to promote the dissemination of information on the personalisation of medicine.

The experience, jointly promoted by the BSC and MWCapital, counts on the collaboration of the BSC spin off ELEM Biotech, consists of recreating a laboratory where basic data will be captured and the pulse of each visitor will be taken to generate a virtual 3D heart that will beat with their own pulse. This is a simplified version of the creation of a 'digital twin' of this organ that is currently being developed and commercialised by ELEM Biotech, based on the Alya Red technology developed with the BSC, and will serve to improve the detection and treatment of heart disease.

"In this new era of data, thanks to supercomputing and the use of artificial intelligence, we will be able to advance as never before in personalised medicine to prevent and cure diseases in a much more effective and efficient way," said Martorell.

Semiconductor talk by Mateo Valero

The director of the BSC, Mateo Valero, will participate in a talk on semiconductors, entitled Barcelona Capital of Chip, which will take place in the Agora of Beat Barcelona, the new proposal of the MWC in the most playful space of the event, conceived as a meeting point where experts in different subjects will participate in debates to explain the projects and bets of the city of Barcelona, at the level of research centres, startups or social application o

BSC spin-offs at 4YFN

Ten BSC spin-offs from fields as diverse as the development of digital twins of the human body, the design of new chemical products, the management of risks derived from climate change, the development of new drugs or the construction of a quantum computer will be exhibited in the space that the BSC will have at 4 Years From Now (4YFN), the event dedicated to technology start-ups within the MWC.

These spin-offs are a good example of the BSC's capacity to transfer technologies to the market and society in general, a total of 30 so far, with more than 160 qualified jobs created and a combined capital raised of 23 million euros.

The 4YFN will also host a session dedicated to making professional contacts, where some thirty investors and accelerator representatives have already confirmed their presence.

The BSC at the MWC, in figures

- 40 researchers present at the congress

- 25 technologies presented

- 10 spin-offs present

- 48 meetings scheduled

- 30 investors confirmed in the networking session

Agenda with all the BSC's presence at the MWC