Welcome to Center for Applied Scientific
Computing (CASC) at LLNL

The Center for Applied Scientific Computing (CASC) conducts world class, collaborative scientific research and development in mathematics, computer science, and data science on problems critical to national security. Addressing problems in the weapons program, cyber and energy security, and knowledge discovery for intelligence applications requires the power of high performance computers and the efficiency of modern computational methods. Our research and development activities are applications driven and focused on LLNL programmatic objectives. The Center’s core competencies include high performance computing, computational physics, numerical mathematics, computer science, and data science.

Major thrust areas in CASC research include:

• developing new insight and understanding through increased simulation fidelity by integrating multi-physics and multi-scale models, increasing resolution through advanced numerical methods or more efficient algorithms, and through the quantification of uncertainty;
• creating the computing tools and programming environments that will enable productive use of the next-generation of exascale computers;
• creating tools to manipulate, analyze, and visualize massive data sets for scientific simulation, text and graph analysis, and information mining for both the physical sciences and intelligence community applications.

A fundamental principle for CASC is that effective R&D of scientific software solutions is based on a “cyclic” approach, where a deep understanding of the requirements of our applications partners drives our research. This research is often instantiated in sophisticated algorithms and software that are implemented directly in the application codes or as general-purpose libraries that can be used by many different customers. The resulting feedback leads to more complex and refined questions demanding basic research, restarting the cycle. It is through these deep and extended partnerships with application teams that we ensure the relevance and impact of CASC research.

CASC is LLNL’s window to the academic community in computer science, applied mathematics, and data science. We foster collaborations with academia, industry, and other government Laboratories that ensure the currency of our research efforts and provide CASC a steady stream of both young and mid-career scientists, ensuring continuity in the expertise of the staff.