CSC Summer School in High-Performance Computing 2023

CSC Summer School

Espoo, Finland, 27 June – 6 July 2023.

CSC Summer School brings together undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in different disciplines of scientific computing from all over the world. The contents consist of lectures and hands-on training on parallel programming, code optimization and other necessary skills in development of scientific software.

General information

The school is aimed for graduate students working in various fields of science, e.g., chemistry, physics, life sciences, engineering or economics as well as Industrial R&D professionals. Also undergraduates as well as post-docs will find the school very useful.

The ten days of school are filled with coding, sports, leisure activities and having good time together. It will be an experience you will never forget with the midnight sun in the Nordic night next to breathtaking wilderness!

The following topics will be covered: 

  • Basics of parallel programming using message-passing (MPI) and threading (OpenMP) paradigms
  • Programming GPUs with OpenMP and HIP
  • Efficient input/output using parallel I/O
  • More advanced topics in MPI
  • Hybrid parallel programming combining MPI, OpenMP, HIP
  • Building real-world HPC applications.
  • Brief introduction to Quantum Computing

The participants will get a certificate containing a recommendation to your home university to grant you 5 credits (ECTS) for the school.

You may also want to read CSC’s article with positive experiences from 2022: https://www.csc.fi/-/hpc-summer-school

Learning outcome

The goal is that it would be possible to build HPC expertise up to an intermediate/semi-advanced level during the school.

After the summer school participants will be able to:

  • Identify the most important parallel programming concepts
  • Construct simple parallel programs with C++/C or Fortran programming languages
  • Construct simple GPU programs
  • Recognize advanced parallel programming constructs
  • Read and modify scientific applications implemented in C++/C or Fortran and utilizing MPI, OpenMP and HIP

Prerequisites

  • Some skills to operate in a Unix environment
  • Basic knowledge of version control with Git
  • Participants are expected to have some experience in programming with C++/C or Fortran, and to be familiar with their basic concepts (e.g. variables, statements, control structures, subroutines, modules/classes). 

Accommodation

Accommodation takes place in double rooms with en-suite shower and toilet. Linen and towels will be provided. 

The Fee

The early bird fee for all ten days is 1650eur + VAT (24 %).

Starting from 15.3. Late price is 1750eur + VAT (24%). 
The fee is all-inclusive. It includes accommodation, four meals and two coffee breaks on most days, social events, printed course materials, instructed sport activities, refreshments, and transportation from downtown Helsinki and back.

Selection

The participants will be selected based on their background information. Notification about acceptance will be send within five business days after registration.

Deadline for registrations is 2.5.2023

Contact cristian-vasile.achim@csc.fi for course details or event-support@csc.fi for registration related questions. More information on CSC website.

DOORS Mobilisation and Mutual Learning Workshop

DOORS Workshop

Constanta, Romania, 6 April 2023.

The first round of the DOORS project’s Mobilisation and Mutual Learning (MML) workshops will kick off on April 6, 2023, in Constanta, Romania. The goal of the workshop is to bring together experts and users of marine products, to raise awareness and share knowledge and skills, using Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) principles.

Objectives of the workshop

  • To engage Black Sea citizens and stakeholders in highly participatory training and co-creation activities to ensure suitability of existing and future Research Infrastructure services to the Black Sea region;
  • To train researchers and companies on how to use existing specific services, tools, data, EU data aggregation infrastructures and services (e.g. EMODnet) and protocols offered by the European Marine Research Infrastructures, to make the most of existing data and monitoring initiatives that can feed into the Blue Economy and political decision making for the region;
  • To set in motion inclusive mechanisms for international sharing of knowledge, building common understanding and cocreating solutions to marine societal challenges and base them on the RRI principles and socio-technical approach.

Session Topics

Sessions include plenary expert talks, round table discussions and hand-on practical exercises to explore existing pan-European marine data infrastructures including:

  • The European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) and how to navigate the marine products catalogue, identify relevant products for the specific users and how to use them.
  • The Marine Litter Watch (MLW), a citizen-based app that aims to help fill data gaps in beach litter monitoring.
  • DOORS Observation Mapping Tool which illustrates the main marine observing capacities and marine data infrastructures identified in the Black Sea.
  • The DOORS #BlackSeaLitterFree Campaign which raised awareness about marine litter, problems and solutions.
  • An introduction to the DOORS System of Systems (SoS), in a working beta version, demonstrating how to access marine data on the platform .

Introducing our System of Systems (SoS)

In DOORS, the foundation of our work will be our System of Systems (SoS) platform which will revolutionise how we handle, process and understand data from the entire region. One of our main goals is to harmonise scientific approaches for gathering data, integrating all existing data as well as new satellite data into a consolidated system that works for everyone.

Video: A short working demo of the System of Systems interface. © DOORS Black Sea

Register for the Event

This workshop is suitable for anyone responsible for collecting or managing marine environmental data in the public sector, industry for education or research. Please remember to share the event widely within your networks.

Symposium: Advanced facilities for the ecological research: the European Research Infrastructures

Metz, France, 24 November 2022.

The European Commission is strongly promoting the establishment and operation of European Research Infrastructures (ERIs), funded by the Member States, as key components of the scientific research landscape supporting the global competitiveness of European research communities. ERIs are aimed at offering high quality data and advanced facilities to European scientists, with particular attention towards early career researchers, promoting innovation, technology transfer to industries, and citizen engagement in science.

In the area of Ecology, some ERIs have already been established as European Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERIC), and are currently operational, whilst others are in the process of becoming so. Globally, the landscape of European Research Infrastructures offers monitoring sites and facilities covering all types of environmental domains, i.e., terrestrial, freshwater, transitional and marine waters and key research areas, such as those dealing with biodiversity organisation, conservation and restoration, with ecosystem processes and carbon sequestration, water and energy fluxes or with agroecosystems.

On 24 November 2022, LifeWatch ERIC is organising the Symposium: “Advanced facilities for the ecological research: the European Research Infrastructures”.
Here, we propose an expert panel discussion, with leading scientists from advanced ERIs supporting European scientific research on biodiversity and ecosystems, such as LifeWatch ERIC, the European e-Science Infrastructure for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, the ecosystem component of ICOS ERIC, the Integrated Carbon Observation System, eLTER RI, the Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem, critical zone ad socio-ecological Research, DiSSCo, the Distributed System of Scientific Collections, Danubius-RI, the International Centre for Advanced Studies on River-Sea Systems, EMSO ERIC, the European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water column Observatory, and JERICO-RI, the Joint European Infrastructure of Coastal Observatories. Presenting their key integrated research facilities to the SFE2 GFÖ EEF Joint Meeting – “Ecology & Evolution: New perspectives and societal challenges“, these infrastructures offer to the relevant ecological research community of practice, a view on their data, services and other types of research resources, on the opportunities for engagement and on the possibilities to propose new types of data and services to be promoted, collected and developed by the ERIs.

The proposed discussion will focus on the major scientific and societal challenges of contemporary times and on the greatest threats faced by biodiversity, ecosystem services and societal benefits, in the context of natural and anthropic pressures, including climate change impacts. The leading scientists involved in the discussion will present how each ERI will commit to collaboratively tackle these issues, supporting the creation of new multidisciplinary and cross-domain knowledge towards facilitation of the implementation of current policies at all levels and the creation of new ones. They will also illustrate how scientists can access their integrated research facilities.

Keynote speakers:
Alberto Basset, University of Salento and LifeWatch ERIC
Christos Arvanitidis, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) and LifeWatch ERIC
Dario Papale, University of Tuscia and ICOS ERIC
Michael Mirtl, Environment Agency Austria and eLTER RI
Niels Raes, Naturalis Biodiversity Center and DiSSCo
Adrian Stanica, National Institute for Research and Development of Marine Geology and Geoecology (GeoEcomar) and Danubius-RI
Gabriella Quaranta, EMSO ERIC
Laurent Delauney, Ifremer and JERICO-RI
Rob J.J. Hendriks, Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and Biodiversa+

Chairperson: Andreas Petzold, Juelich Research Centre, IAGOS and ENVRI-FAIR

Speakers will present their RIs, then they will illustrate the services and facilities that these RIs can provide to address major threats for biodiversity (e.g. alien species, habitat degradation and fragmentation etc) and tackle climate change impacts affecting ecosystem functioning and services. The discussion will be therefore an occasion to highlight multidisciplinary expertise and synergies on these key topics.

Workshop: e-Tools & resources to address key questions on Non-indigenous & Invasive Species

Metz Workshop

Metz, France, 21 November 2022.

LifeWatch ERIC ICT staff, in collaboration with scientists already engaged in developing research activities on non-indigenous and invasive species using LifeWatch ERIC’s Virtual Research Environment facilities, is organising the 4-hour computer-based Workshop: “e-Tools and resources to address key ecological questions on Non-indigenous and Invasive Species” from 14:00-18:00 in Room 13.
Interested attendees will be trained to access and use the Virtual Research Environments from their personal computers. The hands-on session will be introduced by an interactive session to guide the attendees on their first approach to the VREs and related e-tools.

The workshop is organised in the framework of the SFE2-GfÖ-EEF joint meeting “Ecology & Evolution: New perspectives and societal challenges“, on 21-25 November 2022 in Metz. It is being organised by the LIEC (University of Lorraine, CNRS) and other labs in northeastern France working in the fields of ecology and evolution.

Click here for more information.

Workshop description
Non-indigenous and Invasive Species (NIS) are considered one of the major threats to the ecosystem functioning and one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss. Despite the advances in the understanding of introduction pathways, mechanisms of bio-invasions, and impacts of invasive species, the effective management and control of NIS still lag behind their spread.
For such reason, LifeWatch ERIC has developed e-science tools to assist researchers, stakeholders, and citizens in deepening knowledge and obtaining rapid responses to mitigate the risks and impacts of NIS in the terrestrial and aquatic domains.
This joint effort has resulted in the development of a series of ICT facilities and workflows to support scientists in running five case studies (CS) on NIS, tackling different key aspects, including:

  1. the evaluation of their trophic habits (CS 1);
  2. the early-detection of NIS invasion and spread, through standard monitoring procedures and metabarcoding (CS 2 & 3);
  3. the development of keystone NIS species dispersion scenarios for terrestrial Mediterranean ecosystems (CS 4);
  4. the EUNIS habitat and ecosystem vulnerability (CS 5).

The five case studies and workflows are embedded into Virtual Research Environments (VREs) that provide a series of web-services made available through a user-friendly interface and the datasets and services produced through the case studies are accessible through the LifeWatch ERIC catalogue.
 
The workshop aims at presenting the LifeWatch ERIC VREs and e-resources developed for NIS research. During the workshop, the scientific case study leaders, together with the LifeWatch ERIC ICT team, will introduce the aims and analytical tools (e.g. models, computing facilities) included in each workflow. The presentation of the case studies and web-services realised will be followed by a hands-on session where the attendees can access the VREs.
 
AGENDA
14:00-14:05: General introduction (10 mins)
Chairs:
Christos Arvanitidis – Chief Executive Officer, LifeWatch ERIC
Juan Miguel González-Aranda – Chief Technology Officer/ICT-Core Director, LifeWatch ERIC
Alberto Basset – Service Centre Director, LifeWatch ERIC

14:05-14:25: General introduction to Tesseract (15 mins)
LifeWatch ERIC ICT team presentation: Antonio José Sáenz-Albanés – LifeWatch ERIC
 
14:25-15:00: Case Study 1: Evaluation of NIS trophic habits – Crustaceans (35 mins)
Scientific leader presentation: Raffaele De Giorgi – University of Salento, LifeWatch ERIC Service Center
Hands-on session
Questions and discussion
 
15:00-15:35: Case Study 2: Early-detection of NIS invasion and spread through standard monitoring procedures and metabarcoding – ARMS (35 mins)
Scientific leader presentation: Katrina Exter – Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
Hands-on session
Questions and discussion
 
15:35-16:10: Case Study 3: Development of keystone NIS species dispersion scenarios
for terrestrial Mediterranean ecosystems. – Ailanthus altissima (35 mins)
Scientific leader presentation: Carmela Marangi – Italian National Research Council (CNR), Institute for applied mathematics (IAC)
Hands-on session
Questions and discussion
 
16:10-16:30: Break (20 mins)
 
16:30-17:05: Case Study 4: The EUNIS habitat and ecosystem vulnerability. Biotope
(35 mins)
Scientific leader presentation: Julien Radoux (Catholic University of Louvain) and Heliana Teixeira (University of Aveiro)
Hands-on session
Questions and discussion
 
17:05-17: 40: LifeBlock (35 mins)
LifeWatch ERIC team presentation: Juan Miguel González-Aranda, Joaquín López-Lérida, and Ana Mellado-García (LifeWatch ERIC, ICT-Core)
Hands-on session
 
17:40-17:55: Essential Biodiversity Variables using Remote Sensing (15 mins)
Scientific leader presentation: Joris Timmermans – LifeWatch ERIC VLIC
Questions and discussion
 
17:55-18:00: Final Remarks and Conclusion (5 mins)

Mareamico’s 31st Conference of the Sea

Mareamico 2022

Gallipoli, Italy, 6–9 October 2022.

Following last year, Mareamico is bringing back the Conference of the Sea in 2022, reaching its 31st edition, held in Gallipoli at the Galleria dei due mari from 6–9 October 2022. The theme this year will be SAFEGUARDING BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES AND THE BLUE ECONOMY.

Among the issues that will be discussed at Mareamico 2022 are the management and recognition of the value of these resources, both by experts (including Professor Alberto Basset, director of the LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre), and local and national institutional and political representatives.

For more information and the programme, please visit the Mareamico website (in Italian).

Science Summit at UNGA77

SSUNGA77

Hybrid, New York/Online, 13–30 September 2022.

ISC is organising the 8th edition of the UNGA77 Science Summit around the 77th United Nations General Assembly (SSUNGA77) in September 2022. This is a hybrid event with some sessions being held in New York and others online.

LifeWatch ERIC will be convening a Biodiversity Plenary with GBIF on Friday 16 September from 15:00–23:30 CEST; see our news item for more details.

The role and contribution of science to attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be the central theme of this conference. The objective is to develop and launch science collaboration to demonstrate global science mechanisms and activities to support the attainment of the UN SDGs, Agenda 2030 and Local203o.

A central theme of the UNGA77 Science Summit will be inclusiveness: a range of discussions will explore how scientific excellence can be pursued based on inclusiveness at the global level. Another theme will be exploring at the science system works: policies, regulation and funding for science stem from deep in the last century. The pandemic provides a chance to rethink and co-design a new system for science for a new set of urgent challenges. A redesign of the global science system is urgent.

A call for session proposals has been published here.

Science infrastructures and digital research capacity building are crucial to enable scientists to collaborate at an international level to create opportunities for wide-ranging initiatives that can produce innovations to respond to challenges in health, climate, environment, energy, agriculture and food, amongst other things.

EUDAT Conference 2022

EUDAT Conference 2022

This 2022, the EUDAT Conference series returns! Learn about the latest trends and developments in the field of research data management services and network with some of the most active players in the domain.

On 13–15 September, EUDAT CDI will organise its EUDAT Conference 2022 in Athens, Greece with 14–15 September as the public conference days while 13 September will be a closed side-event. As part of the conference programme, a dedicated exhibition and networking session will be introduced to encourage the establishment of new connections and promote the most innovative services and players in the field.

Who should attend and why

The event is open to all, but the following are highly encouraged to participate, such as:

  • Researchers and citizen scientists, repository and community managers to discover services for research data management, storage, preservation and sharing.
  • Actors in the EOSC community, ESFRI, science clusters, and research infrastructures to get the latest on the state of the art and use cases of some of the core services for supporting European research
  • Projects, research institutions and national and European initiatives to gain visibility and network with stakeholders to further their activities
  • Service providers to learn what EUDAT can offer from them
  • Current and prospective EUDAT users and user communities to learn about new major functionalities

Programme Preview

The full agenda will be published in the next few weeks, but here’s a sneak peek at the programme in the meantime:

September 13 (Closed Co-located Events)

September 14 (EUDAT Conference Day 1)

  • Research Data Management Challenges and Available Solutions
  • EUDAT Service Showcase & Overview
  • Research Data Exhibition & Networking Open Session

September 15 (EUDAT Conference Day 2)

  • EUDAT & DICE Use Case Session
  • Cross-Infrastructure Use Case Session
  • Collaborations, Joint Initiatives and Synergy Opportunities Workshop – eInfras, RIs, ESFRIs, EOSC
  • Co-located Event: DICE Progress Highlights

Registration

Registration is required, and full and early-bird fees will be charged. The early-bird fee is €50, which will be available while tickets last or until 15 July. The full cost fee is 90€. 

Click here to register.

Science Europe Open Science Conference 2022

Science Europe

Brussels, Belgium/online, 18–19 October 2022.

Science Europe is organising this conference on Open Science at an important time: the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the value of open and collaborative research, and several recent publications have driven the implementation of Open Science policies and the need to discuss shared values, principles and standards. These include the final report of the Open Science Policy Platform (2020) and UNESCO’s ‘Recommendation on Open Science’ (2021). Earlier in 2022, the Open Science Conference organised under the French Presidency of the Council of the EU, took stock of the links between various aspects of Open Science.

At this 18 and 19 October Open Science conference, we will provide a comprehensive overview of the current policy initiatives, research assessment reforms, and financial measures that support the transition to Open Science, and look forward at new trends. Participants are invited to discuss the many facets related to the transition in a highly interactive event. We will specifically cover:

  • Open Science and society, including equity
  • Open Access to all types of research outputs
  • Evolving research assessment and evaluation practices
  • Access to and use of open research infrastructures
  • Open Science policies

The goal is to bring clarity to an increasingly complex transition and sprawling number of interlinked initiatives that affect the future of the research and innovation landscape. The plenary sessions will focus on strategy and direction, and set the stage for practical, action-oriented breakout discussions. The conference will be one of the first to establish and explore equity as a key consideration in its own right when discussing Open Science.

Practical Details

The Open Science Conference will be broadcasted as a partially hybrid event live from Brussels. Participants are invited to join the plenary and breakout sessions online. Connection details will be shared with registrants closer to the event.

Visit the Open Science website for more details.

ENVRI Community International Summer School 2022

Summer School 2022

Lecce, Italy, 10–15 July 2022.

The ENVRI Community International Summer School, now at its fifth edition, is organised by ENVRI-FAIR and LifeWatch ERIC and will take place in Lecce, Italy, from 10–15 July. This edition’s title is “Road to a FAIR ENVRI-Hub: Designing and Developing Data Services for End Users”, and it will cover topics such as user interfaces, packaging of services, reusability and validation of services, and building and supporting networks through the lens of the ENVRI-Hub approach. 

This School is therefore mainly aimed at IT architects, Research Infrastructure (RI) service developers and user support staff, and RI staff working on user interaction and community/network building.

The Summer School will welcome participants on the afternoon of Sunday 10 July 2022 with an opening event, while the actual School programme will last from Monday to Friday afternoon, closing with a certificate ceremony. Two online webinars are also planned to take place in the third and fourth week of June on specific use cases, in preparation for the School or to attend as stand-alone sessions.

The outline of the School programme is as follows:

  1. Introducing the ENVRI-Hub (concept and architecture)
  2. Learning to know your end users and their expectations: requirements elicitation
  3. Create high quality documentation and usage examples to support service end users
  4. Developing Services and Fostering Reusability/Interoperability among them
  5. Validating and evaluating your services
  6. Participants’ Presentations, School Evaluation and Certificates

Successful applicants to ENVRI Community International Summer School 2022 will be offered accommodation in the beautiful baroque city of Lecce in Southern Italy, and will be invited to “extracurricular” activities such as restaurant dinners and excursions in the surrounding area. 

Interested persons are invited to apply by 26 June by filling in the sign-up form here.

You can access the dedicated minisite with more detailed information on the School here.

Towards the ENVRI Community International Summer School: Webinars on Designing and Developing Data Services for End Users

End User Webinar

Online, 17 & 23 June 2022.

In the run-up to the ENVRI Community International Summer School in July, LifeWatch ERIC and ENVRI-FAIR will be organising two webinars on “Designing and Developing Data Services for End Users”. Participation in the webinars can be in preparation for the School or as stand-alone sessions, for those who cannot attend the School, or those who are still considering registering. For more information on the ENVRI Community International Summer School “Road to a FAIR ENVRI-Hub: Designing and Developing Data Services for End Users”, please visit the dedicated minisite.

The webinars are particularly aimed at IT architects, Research Infrastructure (RI) service developers and user support staff, and RI staff working on user interaction and community/network building. Links to the sessions will be provided upon registration.

Webinar #1: Service validation & evaluation: making sure your services are up to the task

Date
Friday 17 June, 10:00-11:30 CEST

Where
Zoom (link to be provided upon registration)

Programme

  • Validating services & assessing their TRL – Mark van de Sanden (SURF)
  • Service evaluation: why & how – Yin Chen (EGI)
  • Evaluating ENVRI services: experiences from the ENVRIplus – Maggie Hellström (ICOS)
  • Q&A and general discussion – plenary

Webinar #2: Service documentation & tutorials: rolling out the red carpet for end users

Date
Thursday 23 June, 10:00-11:30 CEST

Where
Zoom (link to be provided upon registration)

Programme

  • Writing effective service documentation for EUDAT services – Rob Carillo (EUDAT)
  • Service tutorial design: experiences from EOSC Synergy – Helen Clare (JISC)
  • Using Jupyter Notebooks to introduce services to “new” end users – ENVRI-FAIR expert (TBA)
  • Q&A and general discussion – plenary

You can sign up for one or both webinars using the form linked below:

Click here to access the form.