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We have connected the world of business and supercomputing – InnoVerse 2024

The InnoVerse 2024 conference has become a key event supporting entrepreneurship, innovation, science, and technology not only in the Moravian-Silesian Region. We are proud to be the main partner of this inspiring event, which welcomed more than 500 participants to the auditorium of VSB—Technical University of Ostrava on 28 November 2024.

Through a hands-on workshop, pitch-deck session, and supercomputing booth, we showed participants that supercomputing is not science fiction but an effective tool for innovation.

However, the greatest success of this event lies in establishing contacts with several companies interested in learning more about the possibilities of adopting supercomputing in their practice.

This event represents a further step towards the broader deployment of high-performance computing in industry and research. We thank the organisers from the Moravian-Silesian Innovation Centre (MSIC) for this exceptional conference and look forward to the next edition.

Soak up the atmosphere of this year’s InnoVerse from the photo gallery below.

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Konference uživatelů IT4Innovations - přístupy k superpočítačům EuroHPC JU

At the Users’ Conference of IT4I, we presented ways to access the most powerful supercomputers in Europe

At the beginning of November, IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center held a conference for its current and future supercomputing users. During the programme, we introduced the participants to Europe’s most powerful supercomputer network and how to access it. This network also includes the Karolina supercomputer in Ostrava, operated by IT4Innovations.

Interested participants thus received the most up-to-date information on computing systems and planned innovations presented by the pan-European EuroHPC Joint Undertaking at the user conference held in Amsterdam in October.

However, we mainly presented key details about the five types of EuroHPC JU calls through which it is possible to apply for computational resources of European supercomputers. We also provided an overview of the evaluation process concerning the submitted project applications and the closure dates of each call.

The Users’ Conference of IT4Innovations attracted almost 80 participants, who took part in 22 expert lectures and subsequent discussions. Major topics included advances in machine learning, quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, and materials engineering. These talks demonstrated the practical results and benefits that the use of supercomputers brings across a variety of scientific domains. For more information, visit the IT4Innovations website.

 

5 types of calls for companies, researchers, and public institutions to obtain computational resources

The EuroHPC JU grant competitions are divided into five categories according to the purpose of use and the required amount of computational resources of supercomputers. The following calls are currently available:

  • Benchmark Access — It allows application developers and researchers to test and benchmark their applications. Users receive a limited number of node hours prior to applying for other calls.
  • Development Access — This is designated for application developers and researchers who require a small number of node hours to develop, test, and optimise their applications.
  • AI and Data-Intensive Applications Access — It is open mainly to small and medium-sized enterprises, startups, and public sector entities, who require access to supercomputing resources to perform artificial intelligence (AI) and data-intensive tasks.
  • Regular Access — It is designated for users from private and public sectors whose projects require large-scale resources or frequent access to significant computational resources and data repositories.
  • Extreme-Scale Access — It is designated for high-impact and high societal gain innovative research applications requiring large amount of computational resources, data repositories, and support.

 

For more about the EuroHPC JU calls, see here.

Read also about funding opportunities for supercomputing projects.

 

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AI Days in Ostrava featuring AI 4 Business: Using AI Technology in Practice

Our participation in the AI 4 Business — Using AI Technology in Practice event, organised by the Moravian-Silesian Innovation Centre (MSIC) as part of the national AI Days festival, gave us a unique opportunity to introduce companies and startups to the benefits supercomputers offer in AI development.

During the event’s networking sessions, we, the National Competence Centre in HPC, presented specific tools and services that can help innovative companies significantly streamline their research and development of AI projects and applications.

Indeed, supercomputers today play a key role in analysing large volumes of data, training complex machine learning models, and developing advanced AI solutions, which can be critical for companies in a competitive environment.

By accessing supercomputers, they can reduce the time needed to process large volumes of data, speed up model testing, and get faster results. Plus, with our services, they can get expert support and know-how in code and workflow optimisation.

Finally, we introduced the FFplus initiative, thanks to which companies and startups active in artificial intelligence can receive up to EUR 300,000 to develop their own AI projects using supercomputers. Find out more about it here.

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EuroHPC User Day 2024: Gathering of the European Supercomputing Community

At the end of October, the second edition of the EuroHPC User Day was held in Amsterdam. The meeting attracted nearly 200 participants, mainly active users of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking supercomputers. There were also representatives of supercomputer operators and downstream service providers, including the representatives of the Czech National Competence Centre in HPC.

The program included presentations of completed and upcoming supercomputing and quantum infrastructure installations. Furthermore, selected users presented their projects and shared best practices in their implementation using European supercomputers. The meeting also offered a space for consultation and networking with users of the operators of individual supercomputers operated under the EuroHPC JU. Interested participants also had the opportunity to learn about the Czech Karolina supercomputer, the planned quantum computer of the LUMI-Q consortium and the services of IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center.

An interesting part of the programme was the presentation of the current EuroHPC JU grant competitions for obtaining computational resources. These challenges are open not only for academics but also for companies and startups.

For those interested in the practical use of supercomputers, we offer expert consultations and help navigating through the most up-to-date access options. Do not hesitate to contact us.

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Interview: Roman Iakymchuk – Center of Excellence CEEC Pioneers Exascale Computing of Gas and Liquid Flows

Roman Iakymchuk, the co-principal investigator of the Center of Excellence* in Exascale CFD (CEEC), leads the work package on Exascale Algorithms. We spoke with him about the mission of CEEC, their pioneering efforts in exascale supercomputing, and the ambitious “lighthouse” use cases that aim to demonstrate the transformative potential of exascale computing for key computational fluid dynamics (CFD) applications. Discover how CEEC is working to bring European supercomputing codes to an exascale-ready state, solve complex problems in gas and liquid flows, and share invaluable insights with the broader community.

 

Could you tell me more about the main mission of CEEC?

The mission of CEEC consists of 3 aspects.

Our main focus is to bring European supercomputing codes to the form suitable for exascale computing power, which is more than a quintillion (1018) calculations each second.

Some simulation codes can be partly solved with pre-exascale supercomputers but need the exascale power to be solved completely. We want to help solve more challenging problems connected to the topics of gases and liquid flows by the development of new efficient exascale codes. With the advantage of supercomputers and efficient numerical algorithms, complex systems like these flows can be simulated with increasing realism.

CEEC’s ambition is to enable the use of exascale computers for key computational fluid dynamics (CFD) applications and demonstrate their capabilities through key lighthouse cases.

The last but not least aspect of CoE CEEC’s mission is to communicate our lessons learned to the community. Our experts share their expertise and experience with the code developers for example and support them with knowing how to transform codes to exascale form.

 

How do you see the use of exascale, and do you have a use case for exascale?

Our CoE CEEC has 6 lighthouse cases which are the use cases demonstrating the ambition to enable the use of exascale computers for key computational fluid dynamics (CFD) applications. Lighthouse topics include, for example, atmospheric simulations, static mixers topology optimisation, aeroelastic simulations of the wing, localisation of the erosion of an offshore wind turbine, and more. Find the details on our website ceec-coe.eu

 

It was a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you for your time. The interview was conducted during the High Performance Computing in Science and Engineering – HPCSE 2024 conference organised by IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center and supported by the National Competence Centre  in HPC (NCC) as the main partner.

 

Roman Iakymchuk

Co-principal investigator of the Center of Excellence for Exascale CFD (CEEC), Associate Professor (lecturer, docent) at Umeå University, Sweden

 

*There are ten Centres of Excellence launched by the European High Performance Computing (HPC) Joint Undertaking. The aim of the centre is to support research and Innovation actions that will develop and adapt HPC applications for the exascale and post-exascale supercomputing era. Exascale computing is a type of ultra-powerful supercomputing, with systems performing a quintillion 1018 calculations each second.

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In the very heart of the most significant innovation and AI event of the year – Innovation Week

At the beginning of autumn, the Innovation Week, the most significant event in innovation and artificial intelligence (AI) in the Czech Republic, took place for the ninth time. During this prestigious event, which attracted more than 5,000 visitors, we presented the possible uses of supercomputers for Czech companies at our Innovation Fair booth. Our presentation, “Supercomputers are not science fiction. They help companies gain competitive advantage, save money and time,” attracted more than 70 attendees.

The representation of exhibitors at the fair clearly showed that AI applications are a hot topic in innovation and business. Often, these were various forms of generative AI, such as specialised chatbots and retrained large language models for specific sectors such as business or HR.

We not only introduced visitors to the use of supercomputers for AI and large language model development but also explained what supercomputers are, how they differ from regular computers, and how companies can use them effectively to improve their bottom line. We also discussed the cost of computational resources and presented information on the current FFplus call, which offers companies financial support for supercomputing projects.

We also observed a growing interest in quantum computing and its practical applications. What also caught the attention of many was the planned installation of a quantum computer in IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center, marking a huge milestone in the field of state-of-the-art technologies in the Czech Republic.

We also observed a growing interest in quantum computing and its practical applications. What also caught the attention of many was the upcoming installation of a quantum computer in IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center, marking a huge milestone in the field of state-of-the-art technologies in the Czech Republic.

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Photo gallery: We helped turn an ordinary Friday night into the Researchers’ Night

On Friday, September 27, we traditionally opened the doors of IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center to the public as part of the nationwide science and technology outreach event, Researchers’ Night 2024.

The National Competence Centre in HPC (NCC) booth was again one of the busiest, with more than 400 visitors taking home prizes for solving a knowledge quiz and puzzles.

In an entertaining wheel of fortune form, our supercomputing quiz tested the knowledge of children and adults in supercomputing as well as quantum computing. The youngest children then tackled supercomputing puzzles and brainteasers.

In addition, Tomáš Karásek, Head of the NCC, outlined in a presentation how Czech companies are currently using supercomputers in practice and the possibilities for companies to access supercomputers and funding.

Look at the photo gallery and soak up the atmosphere of this year’s Researchers’ Night.

For more information, please see the IT4Innovations website.

 

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Czech quantum simulator enables testing of new algorithms

At the beginning of the summer, IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center launched a new CUDA Quantum simulator, which can be run on the Karolina and Barbora supercomputers in Ostrava. It is available to all IT4Innovations users with an active project and, thus, also to Czech companies.

“The simulator is relatively easy to start with,” explains Silvie Illésová from the IT4Innovations Quantum Computing Lab. “The documentation contains an illustrative example that anyone can try out after installation,” adds Illésová. Currently, QPU calculations are simulated on supercomputer GPUs, and tasks can be programmed in Python. In addition, the use of a coda environment makes its installation user-friendly.

CUDA Quantum facilitates hybrid application development and significantly increases the productivity and scalability of quantum computing. It enables 30 qubits to be simulated seamlessly on a single Karolina supercomputer GPU. “The quantum simulator is widely used because current quantum computers are not yet suitable for proof-of-concept of new algorithms. The QPU simulation on GPUs makes this simulator ideal for tasks employing a larger number of qubits and for hybrid algorithms combining classical high-performance computing and quantum computing,” says Silvia Illesova.

If you are interested, see here for detailed instructions.

We will be happy to help you with using supercomputers and the quantum simulator. Contact us.

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The prestigious international conference PPAM 2024 took place in the heart of Ostrava

World leaders in supercomputing gathered for four days in Ostrava. From 8 to 11 September, the 15th International Conference “Parallel Processing and Applied Mathematics” (PPAM) occurred here. This important conference was organised by the Czestochowa University of Technology in Poland in cooperation with the IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Centre and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of the VSB-TUO.

One of the special guests was the legendary Jack Dongarra of the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, whose groundbreaking work has fundamentally influenced current standards in supercomputing. The “father of supercomputing” was even interviewed, which you can read or listen to as a podcast. PPAM was also graced with Satoshi Matsuoka, Director of the RIKEN Center for Computational Science, who was behind developing some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. Experts from IT4Innovations Lubomír Říha and Ondřej Vysocký also presented their expertise at the conference.

This year’s PPAM focused on parallel and distributed computing, including both theory and applications and applied mathematics. The presentations focused on models, algorithms, and software tools that facilitate efficient and convenient use of modern parallel and distributed computing architectures and large-scale applications. Particular attention was paid to the future of computing beyond Moore’s Law or the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in high-performance computing.

Find out more on the IT4Innovations LinkedIn or the official conference website.

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Photo Gallery: Art & Science Ostrava

At the beginning of the school year, on September 5, 2024, the ninth edition of the unique Art & Science Festival, which combines science, research and education with creative thinking and art, took place on the campus of VŠB-TUO. The scientific and artistic parts of the programme are naturally intertwined and complement each other, because “doing science” is always art and art is sometimes a science too.

Children, teachers and the general public had the opportunity to learn more about the world of supercomputing and, thanks to the National Centre of Competence for HPC, about the use of supercomputers in practice at the IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Centre’s booth. The lucky quiz round, puzzles and the knowledge game for super prizes were popular again.

Soak up the festival atmosphere from our photo gallery.

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