GBM hosts Cell BE multi-core processor workshop at Qatar University

The workshop was spear headed by Dr. Jaouad Alkhaliki, Chief technology Officer at GBM Qatar, as part of GBM's contribution to the establishment and development of the Knowledge Based Society (KBS) in Qatar.

Dr. Alkhaliki, a former researcher in parallel computing and 3D simulation commented, "We at GBM recognize the potential for the advancement of the technology research in Qatar and we highly appreciate the support given to us by the University in bringing this opportunity to the students".

Dr. Alkhaliki invited Dr. Duc Vianney, IBM USA's Future Technology Solutions Design Center Education Lead, to conduct this workshop with 20 of Computer Science and Computer Engineering Students at the University. Dr. Vianney said, "This is the third workshop of its kind worldwide and the first one to be held outside of the USA". (Al Khaliki removed this from his last version) He continued, "The students of Qatar University have expressed high levels of enthusiasm and interest in the material offered and I look forward to witnessing the outcomes of our lectures".

Students participating in the workshop will develop their skill base and are expected to start work on two projects over the course of this academic year; upon completion they will receive academic credits towards their programs.

Dr. Alkhaliki explained that Cell Broadband Engine architecture commonly abbreviated as CBEA or Cell BE combines a general-purpose power architecture core of modest performance with stream lined co-processing elements which greatly accelerate compute intensive applications as well as many forms of dedicated computation.

He added, "The first major commercial application of Cell BE was in Sony's Play Station 3 gaming console, but we also see benefits of this processor in seismic analysis (PSDM) for the Oil and Gas industry, and all 3D related simulation applications like media (Digital Video Surveillance and 3D animation), entertainment (simulation games), 2D and 3D medical imaging or biosciences (protein folding, new treatments for hard disease and very fast 3D body scanning). Qatar is a very interesting place to work on establishing such high level skills for the region. We are working on proposing to the students some projects on image processing on 3D rendering to develop on this new multi-core processor. This will open to them new horizons as they will work with the rare people in the world working on Cell BE".

Prof. Qutaibah Malluhi, Head of Computer Science and Engineering at Qatar University recognized GBM's role in developing the IT sector in Qatar and thanked them for partnering with the university in offering this first of a kind workshop in the region.

In a final comment, Mr. Massimo Bonciani - General Manager for GBM Qatar - said, "GBM is proud to have been able to offer this workshop which is highly beneficial to the students and the IT industry in Qatar as a whole".