Stories

Our stories, highlighting the value of HPC infrastructure and expertise in Belgium. If you want to share your story here, contact us!

Interview with Pierre Meunier, Innovation Excellence Director (ALSTOM)

Picture collage for interview Cenaero - incl picture of Pierre Meunier
As Belgium’s leading supplier of trains, signaling systems, and railway services, ALSTOM operates two centers of excellence in Charleroi and a manufacturing site in Bruges. At the ALSTOM Belgium Transport site in Charleroi, EuroCC Belgium met with Pierre Meunier, Director of Innovation Excellence. During our conversation, Pierre Meunier shared insights into how digital simulation and high-performance computing (HPC) are driving innovation and shaping the future of rail mobility.

User Story: Improving Qualitative Research Transcription with Whisper and HPC

whisper
In qualitative research, interviews are a fundamental source of insight — but turning hours of audio into accurate transcripts has long been a major bottleneck, often taking up to 10 hours per recorded hour. Thanks to the combination of OpenAI’s Whisper speech-recognition model and high-performance computing (HPC) resources from the CISM/CÉCI network, this is changing dramatically. By running Whisper on dedicated GPU clusters, researchers can now transcribe interviews in minutes instead of hours — all within a fully secure and GDPR-compliant environment. 📊This user story illustrates howow AI + supercomputing enable new possibilities in the humanities and social sciences.

User Story Achieving Optimal Compressor Design with AI Techniques Thanks to HPC

compressor
In aeronautics, every tiny boost in compressor design efficiency counts—for fuel use, emissions and performance. To explore the huge design space of Safran’s multi-stage compressor, Cenaero applied dimensionality reduction (UMAP + clustering) to cut parameter complexity. Using the Lucia supercomputer, they compressed an optimisation loop from weeks to ~36 hours, enabling rapid, AI-driven discovery of high-performance, manufacturable designs.

From Coarse to Crisp: Increasing the Horizontal Resolution of Global Ocean and Sea Ice Simulations

Picture of an ice bear by pexels
Climate models help scientists understand how Earth’s climate behaves and evolves—but many still lack the resolution to capture fine-scale ocean and sea ice processes. Dr. Antoine Barthélemy and his team at UCLouvain are closing that gap. With the power of LUMI, one of the world’s fastest supercomputers, they’re running high-resolution simulations using 4,480 cores in parallel—reducing decades of computation to just 45 days.

The Waffle Boys’ Journey: Friendship, Supercomputing, and Life Beyond Borders

Picture of Umut Cilesiz and Yiğit Ertan
Discover the inspiring journey of Umut Çilesiz and Yiğit Ertan, two Turkish chemistry students whose summer internship at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel sparked a passion for supercomputing. From adapting to life in Belgium to collaborating with international researchers, their story is one of growth, courage, and curiosity. Learn how stepping outside their comfort zone helped them gain lifelong skills—scientific communication, cross-cultural collaboration, and a fresh perspective on their future careers.

A Central Witness of the Development of Belgian HPC: Roberto Lazzaroni Bids Farewell

Pr. Lazzaroni

After more than three decades of high-level scientific engagement, Professor Roberto Lazzaroni is preparing to retire from his position at the University of Mons. A trained chemist, a researcher passionate about molecular modelling, and a key player in the interuniversity dynamics that led to the creation of the CÉCI, he has contributed to shaping the landscape of high-performance computing in Belgium.

User Story Taming the Wind: Reducing Wake Uncertainty between Offshore Wind Farms with Supercomputing

Offshore Wind farm
Offshore wind energy is key to a sustainable future, but as turbines grow in number and size, so do the challenges of managing their wake effects. At the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI), Wim Munters and his VKI Team Wind are tackling one of the hidden challenges of wind energy: how wakes from one wind farm can impact the performance of another—even many kilometers away. Using supercomputing, they are modeling these complex atmospheric interactions at scale. Learn how supercomputing is accelerating research, boosting efficiency, and helping Europe meet its offshore wind ambitions in this user story.

Exclusive Interview – Philippe Geuzaine & Ingrid Lepot (Cenaero)

ITW Cenaero

Left to right: Ingrid Lepot, Head of R&T (Research & Technology) and Philippe Geuzaine, Director of Cenaero.

To mark the opening of the 2025 Paris Air Show, EuroCC Belgium had the pleasure of speaking with Philippe Geuzaine and Ingrid Lepot from Cenaero, a key player in aeronautics and space design, and the coordinating entity behind EuroCC Belgium's activities.