Stuttgart — July 18, 2024 —Today, theme park and media creator MACK One announced a new partnership with the Media Solution Center Baden-Württemberg (MSC), involving its members the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) and the Hochschule der Medien (HdM). Using state-of-the-art digital tools for simulation and artificial intelligence, MACK Research will pursue advanced research aimed at identifying innovative solutions for challenges facing the theme park industry.
Jul 18, 2024
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“We at MACK One are a step beyond. We are driven by a pioneering spirit to try out new things, to be first movers in the industry, to enter new territories with our work. That's why we seek synergy in future-oriented research and the support of science with the help of MACK Research,” says Michael Mack, Managing Partner of Europa-Park and CEO & Founder of MACK One.
The ambitious collaboration will extend beyond the existing daily activities of the Mack Group and concentrate on the development of innovative technologies and concepts. Unlike the operative departments of the Mack Group, the goal of MACK Research is not to develop products for manufacture, but rather to gain new insights. The initiative will focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and the use of state-of-the-art technologies to build experience and develop prototypes that could later be translated into marketable solutions.
Originally founded as an in-house agency at the Europa Park theme park, MACK One has evolved to become an international creator and consultant in the fields of theme park design, media-based entertainment, and media content. The founding of MACK Research marks a new milestone in its history as an innovation leader in the theme park industry, and underlines its commitment to setting new standards through research and development.
MACK Research will utilize HLRS’s Hawk supercomputer during this research. With a peak performance of 26 petaFLOPS (26 x 1015 calculations per second), Hawk is one of Europe’s fastest supercomputers, providing a powerful infrastructure for simulation, artificial intelligence, high-performance data analytics, and data visualization. HLRS staff are also experts in using high-performance computing systems and visualization technologies for virtual and augmented reality.
The Hochschule der Medien will contribute additional expertise to MACK Research based on its knowledge as a leading institution for research and education across a wide spectrum of media-related fields.
The Media Solution Center Baden-Württemberg facilitated the establishment of MACK Research. A membership organization co-founded by HLRS, HdM, and the Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe (ZKM), the MSC brings representatives of the creative industry together with experts in science and technology to catalyze innovations in the arts, media, and culture. MSC General Manager Matthias Hauser sees great potential in MACK Research, remarking, “Europa Park and MACK One are world leaders in the theme park and entertainment fields. The knowledge transfer and access to computing power that it will gain through the establishment of MACK Research will lead to exciting discoveries that could eventually benefit the entire industry.”
The High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) was established in 1996 as Germany’s first national high-performance computing center, building on a tradition of supercomputing at the University of Stuttgart that stretches back to 1959. As a research institution affiliated with the University of Stuttgart and a founding member of the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing — the alliance of Germany's three national supercomputing centers — HLRS provides state-of-the-art HPC services to academic users and industry. HLRS operates one of Europe's most powerful supercomputers, provides advanced training in HPC programming and simulation, and conducts research to address key problems facing the future of supercomputing. Among HLRS's areas of expertise are parallel programming, numerical methods for HPC, visualization, cloud computing concepts, high-performance data analytics (HPDA), and artificial intelligence. Users of HLRS computing systems are active across a wide range of disciplines, with an emphasis on computational engineering and applied science.
Christopher Williams Editor High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart Tel.: +49 (0) 711 / 685-62517 williams(at)hlrs.de
