Learning Supercomputing in Czech Republic

At their summer school for supercomputing, the Leibniz Supercomputing Center and the IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Centre provide young researchers with practical knowledge about high-performance computing, including methods of artificial intelligence and quantum systems.

More data, more computing power and much more knowledge: data volumes are growing in all research disciplines. Scientists therefore need more and more computing power to analyse and process this data. This is why the Leibniz Supercomputing Center (LRZ) and the IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center are hosting a joint Summer School for Supercomputing into the wonderful castle of Hotel Panství in Dlouhá Lhota near Prague in September.
Students and young scientists from Europe can register and learn how to work with high-performance computers (HPC) and systems for artificial intelligence (AI) methods and how to advance or accelerate their projects. The curriculum also includes initial insights into working with quantum systems, efficient strategies for managing research data, as well as exchange and fun.
Those interested can register for the Supercomputing Summer School until July 10: We asked the initiators Dr. Jan Martinovič, Head of the Advanced Data Analysis and Simulations Lab at IT4Innovations, and Dr. Stephan Hachinger, who heads the Research Data Management team at the LRZ, what interested students can expect.

Why did you plan the Summer School for Supercomputing?
Dr. Jan Martinovič: “In various European research projects such as LEXIS or EXA4MIND, in which both the IT4Innovations Supercomputing Center and the LRZ habe been involved, many practical solutions for distributed computing, data management and more have been developed over the last ten years: With these tools, interfaces or technologies, supercomputing becomes more user-friendly, more efficient, it can even be run across borders on the systems of different data centers. So far, these research and development results have mainly been presented to scientists or engineers from research institutions or companies. Examples are the LEXIS platform and tools of the EXA4MIND project. Now we would like educate students about these technologies and the possibilities of high-performance computing or shortly HPC in Europe.”

Dr. Stephan Hachinger: "AI methods are becoming more and more widespread in research. With the rapidly growing volumes of data in all research disciplines, the demand for computing power and therefore also for supercomputers or scalable systems is increasing at the same time. At some point, the university's own computing or AI clusters will no longer be sufficient for simulations or calculations. That is, where supercomputing comes in. However, in some areas of science, the possibilities of HPC, AI and quantum are not yet fully known, nor who has computing capacities available for researchers. We also want to encourage young scientists, and also especially female scientists in these areas, and inform them about new ways of analysing data.

Who are you addressing, who should definitely register?
Martinovič: “The Summer School is designed for students and young scientists. In other words, for people for whom the available computing capacities are no longer sufficient and who are therefore interested in supercomputing, who may have already worked on their first projects and who want to learn about useful, computer-aided programmes and technical developments. AI and quantum computing are enriching supercomputing with many new methods and thus expanding the possibilities for research.”

Hachinger: “Anyone who has to process large amounts of data for a research project, for example in environmental research, astrophysics, technical disciplines or in the life sciences or humanities, and needs supercomputers, will find a good, practical introduction here. At the Summer School, participants can network with researchers from all over Europe and exchange experiences.”

What prior knowledge do you require?
Hachinger: “Not much really. Anyone interested should know how to control and use a Linux system without help on basic level. And, of course, an interest in HPC and computer-aided research is a prerequisite.”

Do you focus on specific scientific disciplines or is the Summer School primarily aimed at computer scientists and data scientists?
Hachinger: “We have little prerequisites on the field which our attendants come from: The Summer School is aimed at all researchers who work with computers, process large amounts of data and may therefore need supercomputing for their studies. Perhaps astrophysicists want to simulate events in the universe or meteorologists want to model the weather using AI techniques? Supercomputing can also be used to analyse huge data sets from self-driving cars, medicine, biology and even history and economics.”

Martinovič: “The subject plays a secondary role at best, and degrees are not the focus either: The Summer School is aimed at students in Bachelor's and Master's degree courses as well as doctoral students and Postdocs. You are welcome to join us with any background.”

What will the participants learn?
Hachinger: “They should be able to experience modern supercomputing in practice. This means that our courses go beyond traditional HPC and cloud computing and also provide insights into computing with GPUs, AI applications and quantum computing.”

Martinovič: “We also show how computational workflows can be automated across systems. Last but not least, we want to teach principles and tricks for good data management, i.e. how data is structured before computing, but also how research results can be documented, archived and published online.”

The participants come from the Czech Republic, Germany and all over Europe: how important is networking in research?
Martinovič: “One thing is certain - getting to know other researchers always promotes professional exchange, broadens personal horizons and gives rise to new ideas. When high-performance computing is discussed from different perspectives in the courses, it reinforces experiences and helps to rethink strategies or become more efficient. We also hope that our Summer School will lead to new research partnerships - among the participants and maybe with us, the two supercomputing centres, as well.”

Hachinger: "We have also set up the Summer School in the Castle of Panství, a lovely hotel near Prague district so that the participants can get to know each other and us lecturers even better. Of course, we primarily want to teach high-performance computing, but fun and joint activities will certainly not be neglected." (vs | LRZ)

Registration