Towards a European Training Network in Scientific Computing

1. Towards a EuropeanTrainingNetwork in Scientific Computing • Pekka Manninen, PhD • CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd

2. Prologue SUPERCOMPUTERS!

3. Prologue 1950 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 1960 Fusion research Quantum chemistry Nuclear physics Genetics Scientific Organ modeling Weather forecasting Climate change Mathematics Materials science Intelligence Tactical simulation Military Weapons modeling Radar image processing Oil deposit finding Banking & insurance databases Drug design Animation movies Stock rates prediction Aerodynamics Commercial Special FX Search engines

4. Outline • Supercomputingeducation & training: challenges • Europansupercomputing: the PRACE project • Training & educationinitiativeswithin PRACE • Face-to-facelearningprogramme • OnlineTrainingPortal • PRACE AdvancedTrainingCentres

5. Utilizingsupercomputers is difficult • A supercomputingapplicationhas to employ 1,000-100,000 processors at the sametime: massiveparallelism • Programmingthesemachines is muchmoredifficultthanthat of a laptop • Scientiststhatemploy the machinesare (usually) notcomputerscientists: • Interdisciplinaryusercommunity • Lack of programmingskills • Training & education & usersupport: as important for a fullyfunctionalsupercomputingecosystem as the machinesthemselves

6. PRACE in a nutshell • Provide world-class supercomputer systems for world-class science • Deploy systems of the highest performance level (Tier-0) with ensuring diversity of architectures • Create a permanent research infrastructurethrough a single European legal entity • Provide the full ecosystem for the PRACE systems • Applicationenabling, usersupport • Grid access • HPC training network

7. Challenges for PRACE trainingactivities • PRACE comprises of 23 countries • Largegeographicaldistances • Largedifferences in users’ skills and trainingneeds • Great variety of skillsthatneed to betransferred • Interdisciplinaryaudiencefromalllevels

8. PRACE trainingactivities • SeasonalSchools & Workshops in HPC allaroundEurope • 9 seasonalschools, 7 workshopssofar • Almost700 reseracherstrained, greatimpact in European HPC know-how • PRACE TrainingPortal • PRACE AdvancedTrainingCenters • Localresourcecenters for HPC training & education

9. Trainingsurveys • PRACE has conducted two landscape analysis on HPC training & education needs in Europe • Pronounceddemand for HPC skillstransfer in alllevelsfrombasic to advanced • The resultsareutilized in planning of PRACE trainings • Both of these reports are publicly available at www.prace-ri.eu/Public-Deliverables

10. www.prace-ri.eu/training

11. www.prace-ri.eu/training Slides & lecturerecordingsfromall PRACE f2f trainingevents: 100 hours of lecturevideos

12. PRACE AdvancedTrainingCentres • Mandate “The PRACE Advanced Training Centres will serve as European hubs of advanced, world-class training for researchers working in the computational sciences.” • Vision “When all centres are functional, the PATC network is a visible and important part of the electronic research infrastructure in Europe.” • Sixcenters for 2012-2014 • Finland (CSC), France (MdS/GENCI), Germany (GSC), Italy (CINECA), Spain (BSC), UK (EPCC)

13. Trainingcollaboration • ”EU-U.S. Summer Schools on HPC Challenges in Computational Science” organizedjointlytogetherwith the U.S. XSEDE e-Infrastructure • 2010 in Italy, 2011 in California, 2012 in Ireland • Exploringcollaborationpossibilitieswithothernations as well • China, Japan and Canada likely to join the organization of 2013 EU-U.S. summer schools

14. Summary • Supercomputing: the no-nonsensepath to progress • PRACE is building a permanent, pan-European research infrastructure for high-end scientific computing • An elaborate training programmeis paramount for the success of the infrastructure • PRACE training activities • Face-to-face events: Workshops and Seasonal Schools • Training Portal • PRACE Advanced Training Centers • For moreinformation, seewww.prace-ri.euwww.prace-ri.eu/training