ThoughtWorks hosts computational science and engineering symposium

ThoughtWorks India, a global IT company, recently hosted the first-of-its-kind, Computational Science Symposium in Pune. The symposium brought together both India’s renowned scientists and researchers from across scientific disciplines, and prominent engineers and technologists in the country.

The symposium delved into the three important trends that are disrupting the field of computational science: Data Deluge, Artificial Intelligence, and Complex Modeling and Simulation.

Dr Raghunath Mashelkar who is a Padma Vibhushan recipient and the National Research Professor and Chairman of the National Innovation Foundation was the keynote speaker who set the stage for what he called, vanishing boundaries. He said, “There are only science and its application. Increasingly, the distinction between science and engineering is vanishing. For instance, I am an Engineering Scientist and a lot of my papers are published not only in core-engineering journals but in pure science ones as well. I believe this is significant of the vanishing boundaries between humanity, social science and natural science. This is the age of an integrated and borderless world of science, engineering and innovation.”

The symposium saw topics such as data-driven scientific discovery, large volume and long-term data management, and trends in data storage and analytics being discussed amid energetic interactions.

Dr Yashwant Gupta, Centre Director at the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research who discussed the challenges and opportunities in the field of Computational Astronomy and Astrophysics had this to say about the relevance of collaboration between the scientific and engineering community, “A lot of the scientific and research community’s challenges are amenable to computing and engineering solutions. Interestingly, Computational Engineering uniquely positions an engineer to better understand challenges of the future; 5 or 10 years in the future, and better prepare for them. Collaboration with the scientific community enables engineering partners to stand at the edge of computing, and implement increasingly profitable tech.”

Dr Vidyadhar Mudkavi, Director at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Fourth Paradigm Institute (CSIR-4PI) in Bengaluru, when elaborating on the fourth paradigm for science based on data-intensive computing, highlighted the significance of ‘crosstalk,’ “A lot of crosstalk has to happen. For example, with my theoretical background, I need a cursory understanding of computer architecture, else it will be difficult for computer science to understand my needs. Models are built on the grammatical capability over a language. Given the core elements, language, hardware and tools - we will still need guidance on the tools to choose and the solutions to build. For example, it is not uncommon for a team of physicists, meteorologists and computer scientists to sit together and write a piece of complex scientific software. Developing new technology and applications with a combination of competencies will perform far better, than not.”

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