In this first episode, the Program engages in a 30-minute conversation with Todd Evans (TACC, USA), João Paulo (INESC TEC/UMinho, Portugal) and Bruno Antunes (Wavecom, Portugal) about the pervasiveness of the advanced computing area, the High-Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructures, the next generation of HPC supercomputers and the challenges and game-changing nature of BigHPC, a UT Austin Portugal’s Strategic Research Project that cuts across all those topics.