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By Chike Okocha News Agency of Nigeria, May 2, 1996 (Lagos, Nigeria) AFRICA, including, its teeming inhabitants is renowned for being a Liliputian compared to other parts of the globe in terms of its achievements in science. More importantly, computer technology, a relatively new field in the fast growing world of science, is perhaps the continent's weakest point. But a Nigerian, Dr. Philip Emeagwali, in far-away United States, has done the continent proud by developing the world's fastest computer. He attracted the attention of the American public when he won the Gordon Bell Prize in computer science by showing how he programmed a supercomputer to perform the world's fastest computation of 3.1 billion calculations per second to solve one of US's most difficult computing problems - understanding how oil flows underground so that oil companies could extract the most of it. Click here for full-scale Connection Machine programmed by Emeagwali to perform 3.1 billion calculations per second. According to experts in the oil industry, oil has properties that make calculating its flow patterns within an oil field more difficult than modeling the flow of groundwater. To model oil-field flow in a computer requires simulation of the distribution of the oil at tens of thousands of locations throughout the oil fields. At each location, the computer must be programmed to make hundreds of simultaneous calculations at regular intervals to determine such variables as temperature, direction of oil flow, viscosity, pressure and several geological properties of the basin holding the oil. "Even a super computer working at the rate of millions of calculations a second is far too slow to reach a result that can be acted on a timely fashion. Oil companies need the results quickly enough to decide how to recover the maximum amount of oil," Emeagwali explains. Emeagwali in front of the partial differential equations that won him the Gordon Bell in 1989 Now, as a result Emeagwali's discovery simulations of oil fields, which help track the oil will take seconds instead of hours to be produced on a computer. The implication is that the increased speed and accuracy may boost the available amount of oil by a few percentage points which will translate into billions of dollars in savings for oil companies, he adds. Commenting on the breakthrough, Alvis McDonald, a research scientist with Mobil Research and Development Corporation in Dallas, US says that: "He (Emeagwali) has made significant accomplishment in computer science sense. During the time saved, we could do more engineering studies on other oil fields which saves both time and money." Emeagwali, who says he was inspired by the complex designs of nature, used geometry to prove that bees use the most efficient method to construct their honeycombs. He reasoned that a computer based on the honeycomb design could improve efficiency and it did. Click on photograph for full-scale Hyperball nature-inspired computer network invented by Emeagwali. "I chose this problem to tackle because in this field in order to have the most impact, you have to work on the most serious problems. l wanted to work on something useful," he explams. He expects his computations to be used in solving a number of other significant problems like calculating the movement of buried nuclear waste tracking the spread of AIDS, improving the accuracy of weather prediction and testing for automobile safety. For his research efforts Emeagwali has been honoured by so many scientific associations in the US. For instance, in 1991, he was honoured as "Scientist of the Year" by the national society of black engineers and "Computer Scientist of Year" by the national technical association in 1993. He is also one of the scientists bemg honoured in the US this year to mark the 50th anniversary of computer technology However, according to Jeff Gaines, who writes for the Journal of the National Technical Association published in the US, Emeagwali is best known for his Gordon Bell Prize --- a prize highly coveted in the computing field and awarded by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers in the US. Even more impressive Gaines adds, is the fact that Emeagwali's Gordon Bell Prize is the first ever awarded to a single individual, and not a team of scientists. The oldest of nine children, Emeagwali who hails from Onitsha Anambra State was forced to quit secondary school midway because of financial difficulties. He therefore studied at home with his father's assistance until he passed his University of London General Certificate of Education (G.C.E.). His academic career in the US began in 1973 when he won a scholarship to study mathematics at the Oregon State University. Shortly after graduating in 1977, he earned a master's degree in civil engmeermg at George Wahington University. There, he studied how to design dams because water supply problems abound in Third World countries where he was thinking of working. "I like to work on problems that are important to society because you get satisfaction. Research is hard work, so you might as well work on important research" he says. Emeagwali also earned two other master's degrees: one in ocean, coastal and marine engineering and l another in applied mathematics. His doctoral degree was in scientific computing which he received from the University of Michigan in l990. In the past years, Dr. Emeagwali has submitted 41 inventions to the US Patent and Trademark Office. These activities, and their market potentials have kept him very busy. His office is full of funding proposals to build prototypes of his ideas. Emeagwali says his goal as an independent consultant is to start his own company which will market products of his own design. Currently, his research interests include fluid dynamics, flood forecasting and nature inspired networks, among others. Original article was distributed on May 2, 1996 by the News Agency of Nigeria. Philip Emeagwali's Honors 1. Nigeria Prize, (Africa's largest scholarly prize) 2. America's Best & Brightest, Dollars & Sense 3. Pioneer of the Year, NSBE 4. Scientist of the Year, NSBE 5. Distinguished Scientist Award, NSBE 6. Computer Scientist of the Year, NTA 7. National Lecturer, ACM 8. Distinguished Visitor, IEEE 9. Distinguished Eagle Award, Nigeria 10. Nigerian Achiever of the Year 11. Emminent Engineer, Tau Beta Pi 12. Computer Pioneer, 50th computer anniversary 13. Africa's Best Scientist, Daily Sketch Click on emeagwali.com for more information.