Presentation of the future National Centre for Scientific Computing (CNCS) of Diamniadio
During his State visit to France, the President of the Republic, Macky Sall, the Ministers of the Economy, Finance and Planning and the Minister of Higher Education and Research signed with the French Public Investment Bank for nearly 10 billion FCFA in financing (15 million euros) to create the National Centre for Scientific Computing (CNCS). Dedicated to digital research and innovation, it will make the Knowledge City of Diamniadio, its home, one of the hot spots for digital in Western Africa.
“Supercalculator”
Senegal will soon acquire a latest-generation parallel calculator, the most powerful south of the Sahara, with the exception of South Africa. With around 320 TFIops in power and integrated storage capacity of 21 To, it belongs to the category of supercalculators. It will be associated with an access portal opening onto a shared resource base. A container data centre will also be pre-installed;
Energy-efficient, the supercalculator Sequana was designed to integrate the most advanced technologies, whether processors, interconnectors or data storage.
Scientific independence and cooperation
The financing agreement signed in Paris in December 2016 includes coverage for professor mobility in both directions, for Master's and PhD programmes in artificial intelligence, Big Data, IT security, robotics, scientific computing, etc. and mobility to France, in the form of internships for students in Master's programmes and work-study fellowships for students in under joint thesis supervision programmes. Researchers and faculty researchers previously ran their computing abroad. From as early as June, they will be able to take advantage of this powerful calculator, close to home.
The construction of the building set to house the calculator is well underway and several researchers have taken part in immersion stays in Grenoble, on the same type of calculator. The new facility will benefit many fields: agriculture, health, genomics, biotechnologies, ICTs, mining, gas, oil, power, security, meteorology, climate change, coastal erosion, water management, irrigation, navigation, environment, satellite data operation, etc.
Positive effects for the country’s development
The Supercalculator was designed to contribute to Senegal's concrete development. Fully interconnecting with the Plan for an Emerging Senegal in design, it will make particular contributions to the implementation of 2 of the PES’ thrusts: agro-hydrology and the mining sector.
In the agricultural and hydrological sector, the areas of application for digital simulation will make it possible to bring about innovation in meteorology, climatology, image processing (satellits, drones), plant growth and population dynamics. Scientists will be able to run simulations on the effects of climate change on populations, the erosion of coastal regions, or the risks to which fish resources are exposed.
As to the mining sector, it will benefit from the digital simulations which the CNCS will house, to simulate wells/reservoirs, geological research and 3D-mapping, and the modelling of Senegalese territories.