Benguerir – Today, Morocco marked a major milestone in its technological rise today with the launch of SupercomputingAfrica 2025, the first national conference dedicated to High-Performance Computing (HPC) in the country and on the African continent.
Held at UM6P Benguerir, the event gathered leading researchers, international experts, and industry innovators to explore the latest advancements and future potential of supercomputing in Africa.
The inaugural conference reinforced Morocco’s ambition to become a regional hub for advanced computing, offering a platform for collaboration across academia, industry, and international partners.
With sessions spanning breakthrough HPC applications, sustainability challenges, and emerging real-world use cases, the event illustrated the continent’s accelerating move toward data-driven innovation.
One of the event’s headline speakers was Thomas Soddermann, Head of the HPC Department at Fraunhofer SCAI, part of Germany’s prestigious Fraunhofer Society, known for transforming research into real-world impact.
Soddermann highlighted Morocco’s increasing strategic relevance in advanced computing and revealed new opportunities for international collaboration.
“We are currently trying to get funding from the EU on a joint EU–Morocco or Northern Africa project in the field of green energy,” he said, highlighting the growing cross-continental momentum in technology and sustainability research.
His remarks signal a deeper alignment between Morocco and Europe on innovation, reinforcing the role of HPC as a catalyst for scientific and industrial breakthroughs.
A focal point of today’s discussions was Toubkal, Africa’s fastest supercomputer and one of the world’s most energy-efficient systems.
Robert Basmadjian, Head of the Toubkal Supercomputer at UM6P, emphasized how the system is enabling cutting-edge research across multiple disciplines.
“Most of our users are PhDs, postdocs, and professors, and their top-tier research simply wouldn’t be possible without the infrastructure we provide,” Basmadjian noted.
Toubkal’s showcase reinforced UM6P’s positioning as a continental leader in computational research, supporting fields ranging from climate modeling to AI, materials science, and bioinformatics.
SupercomputingAfrica 2025 stands as a symbolic and strategic moment for the region, demonstrating not only Morocco’s growing influence in HPC, but also the broader continent’s readiness to engage in the global computing ecosystem.
