Are there any overclockers or uber-geeks out there who fancy helping NASA with a problem? If so, today is your lucky day. Turns out NASA needs as much help as it can get trying to overcome its reliance on old code to speed up fluid dynamic modeling calculations, despite having deployed some pretty expensive Nvidia grunt. The 'High Performance Fast Computing Challenge’ offers a bounty of $55,000 USD to any folks who can help them use current FUN3D software and the latest hardware to more quickly execute complex modeling tasks. Read on for more details:

“Do you, or someone you know, know how to program computers? NASA has a challenging assignment for you. NASA’s aeronautical innovators are sponsoring a competition to reward qualified contenders who can manipulate the agency’s FUN3D design software so it runs ten to 10,000 times faster on the Pleiades supercomputer without any decrease in accuracy.

“The competition is called the High Performance Fast Computing Challenge (HPFCC). “This is the ultimate ‘geek’ dream assignment,” said Doug Rohn, director of NASA’s Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program (TACP). “Helping NASA speed up its software to help advance our aviation research is a win-win for all.”

“This challenge is specifically targeted to speed up the CFD portion of our aerospace research,” said Michael Hetle, TACP program executive. “Some concepts are just so complex, it’s difficult for even the fastest supercomputers to analyze these models in real time. Achieving a speed-up in this software by orders of magnitude hones the edge we need to advance our technology to the next level!”

For the full story visit NASA.gov here.

News Source: Engadget