Bridging HPC Operations and Users from Industry and Academia: Let’s Talk
Tuesday, June 23, 2026 5:15 PM to 6:00 PM · 45 min. (Europe/Berlin)
Hall H, Community Stage - Ground floor
Community Meet-up
AI Applications powered by HPC TechnologiesApplication Workflows for DiscoveryCommunity EngagementDevelopment of HPC SkillsIntegration of Quantum Computing and HPC
Information
As high-performance computing (HPC) rapidly evolves from a primarily academic resource into a cornerstone of industrial innovation—powering AI, digital twins, advanced manufacturing, drug discovery, and emerging quantum/HPC workflows—the pressure on HPC centers is fundamentally changing. It is no longer sufficient to provide world-class compute infrastructure alone. Centers are increasingly expected to translate this capability into scalable, repeatable, and economically meaningful impact for industry. Yet, despite significant investments across Europe, North America, and globally, many of these collaborations remain fragmented, ad hoc, and difficult to scale.
A central barrier lies in the persistent disconnect between infrastructure providers, operations teams, and end users. Communication often happens in silos, limiting efficiency, slowing onboarding, and preventing the emergence of sustainable collaboration models. At the same time, the rapid rise of AI and the integration of quantum technologies are reshaping expectations from industry users, while the HPC community faces a growing workforce challenge as experienced engineers and operators retire, taking critical institutional knowledge with them. The question is no longer whether HPC can support industry, but how it can do so effectively, systematically, and at scale.
This Community Stage session invites ISC participants to tackle this challenge head-on in an open, highly interactive format guided by the two organizers. Rather than focusing on traditional presentations, the session will prioritize active audience engagement, peer exchange of experiences, and collective problem-solving. After a brief set of sharp, thought-provoking lightning inputs sparked by the Community Stage organizers, the floor will quickly open to the audience. Through live polling, moderated discussion rounds, and open contributions, participants will be encouraged to share real-world experiences—what has worked, what has failed, and where the biggest gaps remain.
The discussion will focus on critical questions facing the global HPC ecosystem: Which engagement models truly work for different types of industry partners—from SMEs to multinational enterprises? How can HPC centers move beyond one-off collaborations toward scalable, repeatable, and collaborative frameworks? How do AI and quantum computing change expectations for access, usability, and support? And how can we close the growing workforce gap while improving collaboration between operations, infrastructure, and users through approaches such as SimOps?
The goal of this session is not to present yet another set of high-level recommendations, but to surface actionable, experience-based insights from the community itself. By bringing together diverse perspectives—infrastructure operators, researchers, industry users, and funders—this session aims to identify common patterns, shared challenges, and practical solutions that participants can immediately apply in their own environments, and that can be included in the SimOps best practices and practitioner trainings for the wider HPC community.
Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of what it takes to turn HPC capabilities into real industrial impact: not just through technology, but through better alignment of people, processes, technology, and operations. The key takeaway—and intended “aha” moment—is that scaling industry engagement in HPC is less a question of infrastructure, and more a question of integration: breaking down silos, operationalizing collaboration, and building ecosystems that make advanced computing truly accessible, usable, and impactful.
Who:
This session targets HPC center operators, industry users (from SMEs to enterprises), researchers, funding bodies, and the SimOps community, bringing together technical, operational, and business perspectives that rarely meet in one forum.
What:
It addresses the challenge of transforming HPC from isolated, ad-hoc industry collaborations into scalable, repeatable, and sustainable engagement models, while overcoming silos between infrastructure, operations, and users.
How:
Through a highly interactive format with short lightning inputs, live polling, and moderated discussions, the audience will actively share experiences, challenges, and best practices.
Value:
Participants will gain (and contribute to) actionable insights on how to scale industry engagement in HPC, with the key realization that success depends less on technology alone and more on aligning people, processes, and operations.
A central barrier lies in the persistent disconnect between infrastructure providers, operations teams, and end users. Communication often happens in silos, limiting efficiency, slowing onboarding, and preventing the emergence of sustainable collaboration models. At the same time, the rapid rise of AI and the integration of quantum technologies are reshaping expectations from industry users, while the HPC community faces a growing workforce challenge as experienced engineers and operators retire, taking critical institutional knowledge with them. The question is no longer whether HPC can support industry, but how it can do so effectively, systematically, and at scale.
This Community Stage session invites ISC participants to tackle this challenge head-on in an open, highly interactive format guided by the two organizers. Rather than focusing on traditional presentations, the session will prioritize active audience engagement, peer exchange of experiences, and collective problem-solving. After a brief set of sharp, thought-provoking lightning inputs sparked by the Community Stage organizers, the floor will quickly open to the audience. Through live polling, moderated discussion rounds, and open contributions, participants will be encouraged to share real-world experiences—what has worked, what has failed, and where the biggest gaps remain.
The discussion will focus on critical questions facing the global HPC ecosystem: Which engagement models truly work for different types of industry partners—from SMEs to multinational enterprises? How can HPC centers move beyond one-off collaborations toward scalable, repeatable, and collaborative frameworks? How do AI and quantum computing change expectations for access, usability, and support? And how can we close the growing workforce gap while improving collaboration between operations, infrastructure, and users through approaches such as SimOps?
The goal of this session is not to present yet another set of high-level recommendations, but to surface actionable, experience-based insights from the community itself. By bringing together diverse perspectives—infrastructure operators, researchers, industry users, and funders—this session aims to identify common patterns, shared challenges, and practical solutions that participants can immediately apply in their own environments, and that can be included in the SimOps best practices and practitioner trainings for the wider HPC community.
Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of what it takes to turn HPC capabilities into real industrial impact: not just through technology, but through better alignment of people, processes, technology, and operations. The key takeaway—and intended “aha” moment—is that scaling industry engagement in HPC is less a question of infrastructure, and more a question of integration: breaking down silos, operationalizing collaboration, and building ecosystems that make advanced computing truly accessible, usable, and impactful.
Who:
This session targets HPC center operators, industry users (from SMEs to enterprises), researchers, funding bodies, and the SimOps community, bringing together technical, operational, and business perspectives that rarely meet in one forum.
What:
It addresses the challenge of transforming HPC from isolated, ad-hoc industry collaborations into scalable, repeatable, and sustainable engagement models, while overcoming silos between infrastructure, operations, and users.
How:
Through a highly interactive format with short lightning inputs, live polling, and moderated discussions, the audience will actively share experiences, challenges, and best practices.
Value:
Participants will gain (and contribute to) actionable insights on how to scale industry engagement in HPC, with the key realization that success depends less on technology alone and more on aligning people, processes, and operations.
Format
on-site
