Cineca and Leonardo to Boost Italian Technological Development Through HPC and AI
ROME, Dec. 18, 2024 -- Cineca and Leonardo are expanding their collaboration to create a structured digital services supply chain that will bolster Italy's technological development and support the national industrial system. This initiative builds on a framework agreement signed in 2020 to foster synergies in research and technological innovation.
From left Simone Ungaro - Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer of Leonardo, Alessandra Poggiani - General Manager of Cineca, Roberto Cingolani - CEO and General Manager of Leonardo, Francesco Ubertini - President of Cineca.
The new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Leonardo CEO and General Manager Roberto Cingolani and Cineca General Director Alessandra Poggiani.
"The partnership with Cineca aims to make the country's production and industrial system more competitive by using extremely high-performance HPC infrastructures," said Roberto Cingolani. "Per-capita computing and storage capacity are the indicators that today best define a nation’s level of development on a par with, or perhaps more than, the GDP."
For Alessandra Poggiani, "Cineca's institutional mission as the national strategic supercomputing platform also involves technology transfer as a strategic objective. We are convinced that the collaboration with Leonardo, in a virtuous supply chain model that starts with research and ends with application, will be particularly valuable in supporting national economic development and innovation."
Under this partnership, Cineca and Leonardo will leverage their infrastructure services and specialized expertise to benefit public and private entities, focusing on advancing generative AI technology. By utilizing machine learning and deep learning techniques, generative AI enables the creation of original content based on massive datasets.
The computational capabilities of both organizations will play a pivotal role in this effort. Cineca and Leonardo operate some of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe and globally, which are essential for transforming data into applications such as product design, supply chain management, and the optimization of production processes.
As part of the agreement, Cineca will provide its computational resources to develop integrated platforms that support national research, higher education, and training systems. This initiative aims to facilitate technology transfer and enhance the accessibility of high-performance computing (HPC) for businesses.
Leonardo, through its expertise and advanced infrastructure—including the davinci-1 supercomputer—will focus on transforming Cineca’s developments into practical industrial applications and services. The company will ensure these solutions are business-oriented while adhering to robust cybersecurity measures to protect sensitive data. Additionally, Leonardo will provide computational support to Cineca when the consortium’s capacity is insufficient for certain workloads.
Source: Leonardo
