The success that Nigerian-born computer scientist Philip Emeagwali

This passage was adapted from articles published in the 1990s.

The success that Nigerian-born computer scientist
Philip Emeagwali (b. 1954) has had in designing
computers that solve real-world problems has been
fueled by his willingness to reach beyond established
(5) paradigms and draw inspiration for his designs from
nature. In the 1980s, Emeagwali achieved
breakthroughs in the design of parallel computer
systems. Whereas single computers work sequentially,
making one calculation at a time, computers
(10) connected in parallel can process calculations
simultaneously. In 1989, Emeagwali pioneered the use
of massively parallel computers that used a network
of thousands of smaller computers to solve what is
considered one of the most computationally difficult
(15) problems: predicting the flow of oil through the
subterranean geologic formations that make up oil
fields. Until that time, supercomputers had been used
for oil field calculations, but because these
supercomputers worked sequentially, they were too
(20) slow and inefficient to accurately predict such
extremely complex movements.

To model oil field flow using a computer requires
the simulation of the distribution of the oil at tens of
thousands of locations throughout the field. At each
(25) location, hundreds of simultaneous calculations must
be made at regular time intervals relating to such
variables as temperature, direction of oil flow,
viscosity, and pressure, as well as geologic properties
of the basin holding the oil. In order to solve this
(30) problem, Emeagwali designed a massively parallel
computer by using the Internet to connect to more
than 65,000 smaller computers. One of the great
difficulties of parallel computing is dividing up the
tasks among the separate smaller computers so that
(35) they do not interfere with each other, and it was here
that Emeagwali turned to natural processes for ideas,
noting that tree species that survive today are those
that, over the course of hundreds of millions of years,
have developed branching patterns that have
(40) maximized the amount of sunlight gathered and the
quantity of water and sap delivered. Emeagwali
demonstrated that, for modeling certain phenomena
such as subterranean oil flow, a network design based
on the mathematical principle that underlies the
(45) branching structures of trees will enable a massively
parallel computer to gather and broadcast the largest
quantity of messages to its processing points in the
shortest time.

In 1996 Emeagwali had another breakthrough
(50) when he presented the design for a massively parallel
computer that he claims will be powerful enough to
predict global weather patterns a century in advance.
The computer’s design is based on the geometry of
bees’ honeycombs, which use an extremely efficient
(55) three-dimensional spacing. Emeagwali believes that
computer scientists in the future will increasingly
look to nature for elegant solutions to complex
technical problems. This paradigm shift, he asserts,
will enable us to better understand the systems
(60) evolved by nature and, thereby, to facilitate the
evolution of human technology.

1. Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?

(A) Emeagwali’s establishment of new computational paradigms has enabled parallel computer systems to solve a wide array of real-world problems that supercomputers cannot solve.
(B) Emeagwali has shown that scientists’ allegiance to established paradigms has until now prevented the solution of many real-world computational problems that could otherwise have been solved with little difficulty.
(C) Emeagwali’s discovery of the basic mathematical principles underlying natural systems has led to a growing use of parallel computer systems to solve complex real-world computational problems.
(D) Emeagwali has designed parallel computer systems that are modeled on natural systems and that are aimed at solving real-world computational problems that would be difficult to solve with more traditional designs.
(E) The paradigm shift initiated by Emeagwali’s computer designs has made it more likely that scientists will in the future look to systems evolved by nature to facilitate the evolution of human technology.


2. According to the passage, which one of the following is true?

(A) Emeagwali’s breakthroughs in computer design have begun to make computers that work sequentially obsolete.
(B) Emeagwali’s first breakthrough in computer design came in response to a request by an oil company.
(C) Emeagwali was the first to use a massively parallel computer to predict the flow of oil in oil fields.
(D) Emeagwali was the first computer scientist to use nature as a model for human technology.
(E) Emeagwali was the first to apply parallel processing to solving real-world problems.


3. The passage most strongly suggests that Emeagwali holds which one of the following views?

(A) Some natural systems have arrived at efficient solutions to problems that are analogous in significant ways to technical problems faced by computer scientists.
(B) Global weather is likely too complicated to be accurately predictable more than a few decades in advance.
(C) Most computer designs will in the future be inspired by natural systems.
(D) Massively parallel computers will eventually be practical enough to warrant their use even in relatively mundane computing tasks.
(E) The mathematical structure of branching trees is useful primarily for designing computer systems to predict the flow of oil through oil fields.


4. Which one of the following most accurately describes the function of the first two sentences of the second paragraph?

(A) They provide an example of an established paradigm that Emeagwali’s work has challenged.
(B) They help explain why supercomputers are unable to accurately predict the movements of oil through underground geologic formations.
(C) They provide examples of a network design based on the mathematical principles underlying the branching structures of trees.
(D) They describe a mathematical model that Emeagwali used in order to understand a natural system.
(E) They provide specific examples of a paradigm shift that will help scientists understand certain systems evolved by nature.


5. Which one of the following, if true, would provide the most support for Emeagwali’s prediction mentioned in lines 55–58?

(A) Until recently, computer scientists have had very limited awareness of many of the mathematical principles that have been shown to underlie a wide variety of natural processes.
(B) Some of the variables affecting global weather patterns have yet to be discovered by scientists who study these patterns.
(C) Computer designs for the prediction of natural phenomena tend to be more successful when those phenomena are not affected by human activities.
(D) Some of the mathematical principles underlying Emeagwali’s model of oil field flow also underlie his designs for other massively parallel computer systems.
(E) Underlying the designs for many traditional technologies are mathematical principles of which the designers of those technologies were not explicitly aware.


6. It can be inferred from the passage that one of the reasons massively parallel computers had not been used to model oil field flow prior to 1989 is that

(A) supercomputers are sufficiently powerful to handle most computational problems, including most problems arising from oil production
(B) the possibility of using a network of smaller computers to solve computationally difficult problems had not yet been considered
(C) the general public was not yet aware of the existence or vast capabilities of the Internet
(D) oil companies had not yet perceived the need for modeling the flow of oil in subterranean fields
(E) smaller computers can interfere with one another when they are connected together in parallel to solve a computationally difficult problem