Agartala, March 9: Agartala has become the second city in the Northeast to install a supercomputer after Guwahati.
Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar today inaugurated the C-DAC Param supercomputer, which has been installed at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Agartala, 25km from here.
The supercomputer in IIT Guwahati started functioning on February 10.
Sarkar asked the students to work on innovation and with commitment to society.
"Science and technology hold the key to solving a lot of problems facing our country and as technocrats you have a lot of responsibilities. Though NIT is a central institution, the state government is ready to extend any help when required," he said.
Sarkar called upon the students to dedicate themselves to study and research and to work in a manner so that they would not need any special training later. "Study your subjects in depth so that you do not need any skill development training later to land jobs," he said.
Among other services, the supercomputer will help in the early prediction of an earthquake, 24 hours before the disaster strikes.
Addressing students and professors after the inaugural ceremony, NIT director Professor G. Mugeraya said in pursuit of excellence in technical education, high-performance research, consultancy and training, the institute has set up the iconic Param supercomputing facility, which has been developed in joint collaboration by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and the Union ministry of communications and information technology.
He said the tasks performed by a supercomputer are invaluable and innumerable, especially in the field of advanced research.
"This supercomputer will render the same service but in addition it will help students and teachers to carry out in moments research, advanced calculations and other things which otherwise take months to complete," Mugeraya said.
This supercomputer can be used as a tool for carrying out modelling, simulation and data analysis in multiple science and engineering research, including earthquakes and floods and can help analyse the data from such natural disasters," he added.
"The Param supercomputer at NIT is equipped with the latest processing and accelerator technology from leading IT organisations like Intel and Nvidia and can be referred to as the world's most compact and energy-efficient supercomputing solution," he said.
Speaking on the NIT's achievements, Mugeraya said of the 478 students who passed out of the institute last year, 412 secured placements in various PSUs, including BPCL and Coal India, and other organisations.
He said the NIT currently has 1,435 students - 840 in undergraduate courses and the rest in 22 post-graduate courses.
"Our rank at the national level is now 50th among all higher educational institutions in the country, including the IITs," Mugeraya said.
