Los Angeles (People's Daily) - A team of 12 Chinese researchers won the 2017 ACM Gordon Bell Prize for their project, “15-Pflops Nonlinear Earthquake Simulation on Sunway TaihuLight: Enabling Depiction of Realistic 10 Hz Scenarios.”

The Sunway TaihuLight is the world’s fastest supercomputer. Located at the National Supercomputer Center in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. It is three times faster as the previous supercomputer that held the world record for speed.

The team designed software that can recreate 3D visualizations relating to the Tangshan earthquake from 1976.

An official statement from organizers read, “The award recognizes the extraordinary progress made each year in the innovative application of parallel computing to challenges in science, engineering, and large-scale data analytics.”

Selected from a group of three finalists, the winning team was awarded $10,000 (USD).

Named after Godon Bell, a pioneer in high-performance and parallel computing. He is regarded for contributions in the world of high-performance computing.