Accra, Ghana – The University of Ghana has commissioned a newly upgraded High-Performance Computing (HPC) facility, backed by a US$500,000 investment, to strengthen climate research, artificial intelligence (AI), and big data analytics across Africa.
The upgraded facility will provide students and researchers with centralized computing power and storage, enabling them to process vast datasets, run complex simulations, and undertake advanced scientific modelling that would otherwise be impossible on conventional computers.
Speaking at the commissioning ceremony, Vice-Chancellor Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo described the investment as a major milestone in the University’s ambition to become a leading research institution.
“I am excited about this upgrade because last year I paid a visit to Tsinghua University in China and I had the opportunity to visit their High-Performance Computing Center for Research,” she said.
“It was fascinating what those powerful machines could do to facilitate research at the university. Now I can say we have something comparable at my university. I am very happy for this upgrade. Indeed, it aligns with the kind of impact we want to have as a university, as we have articulated in our vision.”
Professor Amfo noted that the facility would promote collaboration across departments by reducing duplication of research infrastructure and encouraging the sharing of computing resources.
“We sometimes work in silos and replicate efforts. I believe this facility will help us consolidate our resources, and that is a fantastic thing that has happened,” she said.
She also acknowledged the contribution of the Mastercard Foundation, whose support through the Africa Climate Collaborative made the upgrade possible.
“I would like to express appreciation to the Mastercard Foundation, through its Africa Climate Collaborative. We do what we do because of our partnerships, and that is why engagement and partnerships are one of our four strategic priorities,” she added.
The Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Development and Lead of the University’s Africa Climate Collaborative, Professor Gordon Awandare, said the upgraded HPC significantly expands the University’s capacity to undertake data-intensive research.
He explained that the system functions like 500 computers working together simultaneously, enabling researchers to process several terabytes of data without overwhelming individual machines.
“The primary goal is to use it for climate change research,” Prof. Awandare said.
“Climate research involves Earth observation data, temperature, rainfall, humidity—huge amounts of data aggregated over years or decades. You need high-performance computing capacity to manage that.”
He said the facility would support climate modelling, weather forecasting, artificial intelligence applications, and other research requiring large-scale computational analysis.
The upgrade forms part of the Africa Climate Collaborative Project and follows an earlier US$350,000 investment made in 2017 through the World Bank-supported African Centres of Excellence project. Combined, the University has invested US$850,000 in its High-Performance Computing infrastructure over the past decade.
Although climate science remains the facility’s primary focus, Professor Awandare noted that it will serve researchers across the University, including those working in epidemiology, physics, engineering, genomics, and other computationally intensive disciplines.
He said the expanded computing capacity would play an important role in developing African-led solutions to climate change by enabling sophisticated data analysis, predictive modelling, and evidence-based research to support policy development and climate adaptation.
The upgraded High-Performance Computing facility is now available as a shared research resource for the entire University community, positioning the University of Ghana to strengthen its contribution to scientific innovation and climate resilience across the continent.
Source: www.climatewatchonline.com
