As part of its 16th Annual Science and Engineering Seminar, Lawrence Livermore National Lab bridged the gap between science and students by giving seminars on ongoing research at the lab. Students buzzed with excitement as they filed into the lecture hall to learn about El Capitan, or “the world’s most powerful supercomputer,” in a session presented by LLNL software developers Cat De Frates and William Hobbs.
Research can’t always be translated into a physical lab. Time constraints may limit execution. Before any experiment can be conducted at LLNL, most researchers will run a simulation to get an idea of how their experiment is going to be modeled.
These simulations require a computer with plenty of memory to hold experimental details, and one that is quick enough to run multiple simulations. A supercomputer.
A supercomputer is, put simply, multiple specialized computers combined, capable of solving complex scientific and engineering problems.
The hardware of supercomputers prioritizes speedy processing and communication between nodes, using processors like CPUs, GPUs and APUs. CPUs form computing nodes, which communicate with each other throughout the network. GPUs are useful in doing specialized math quickly, which supercomputers rely on to run simulations.
The software that makes up El Capitan — and other super computers — has several individual components to organize data and simulations. The computer operates like a resource manager, organizing all experiment requests from scientists.
LLNL has also developed Splack, a package manager that allows scientists to use a variety of different libraries to build multiple versions of the same simulation.
“For now, El Capitan is the biggest, fastest machine in the world,” Hobbs said. “It is the No. 1 supercomputer out of the top 500 supercomputers.”
Hundreds of scientists rely on El Capitan to run their experiments, from modeling the seismic activity of the Bay Area to predicting how materials will behave in extreme weather conditions.
The seminar was successful in bridging the gap between science and the public and exposing students to a lesser-known complex scientific topic.
“I actually didn’t know about high performance computer systems until I came to the info session,” said data science major Aditi Joshi. “I thought it was really cool how these supercomputers let people model and run simulations that are bigger, faster and more accurate with real life applications.”
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TOP PHOTO: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s software developer Catherine de Frates was invited to speak about the world’s most powerful super computer El Capitan at LPC in room 1011 on Apr. 8, 2026. De Frates goes over the logistics and facilities needed to run a super computer like El Capitan. (Photo by Eric Liang/The Express).
Manahil Bajwa is a staff writer for The Express. Follow her on Instagram @manahilbajLPC.
