CERN openlab holds annual technical workshop and announces new leader

145 people – including representatives of the member companies – joined the 2023 CERN openlab technical workshop. (Image: CERN)

Last week, CERN openlab held its annual technical workshop at CERN. CERN openlab is a unique public–private partnership between CERN and leading tech companies, which works to drive innovation in the computing technologies needed by CERN’s research community.

The ambitious upgrade programme for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) poses significant computing challenges. When the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) comes online in 2029, around ten times the computing capacity of today will be required. Simply spending more money to buy more equipment isn’t an option; instead, IT experts across CERN are finding ways to work smarter.

CERN openlab is central to this work. Today, 30 R&D projects are carried out through this collaboration, addressing challenges related to the next generation of supercomputers, known as “exascale”; artificial intelligence (AI); and quantum computing. CERN openlab also runs projects aimed at sharing knowledge and expertise with research communities beyond particle physics. All these projects were presented at the two-day technical workshop, which was held in the CERN Council Chamber.

The event was attended by 145 people (in person and online), including representatives of member companies Intel, Oracle, Siemens, Micron, Google, IBM, Roche and Comtrade. As well as discussing ongoing projects, the workshop provided an excellent opportunity for considering emerging challenges and identifying opportunities for mutually beneficial collaboration.

At the event, Maria Girone was announced as the new head of CERN openlab. Girone, who has served as CERN openlab’s Chief Technology Officer since 2016, recently received a prestigious Italian award and founded the Swiss chapter of the Women in High-Performance Computing advocacy group.

Alberto Di Meglio, who has served as the head of CERN openlab since 2013, is now responsible for running CERN IT’s new Innovation section. This section, created as part of the CERN IT department’s new strategy, includes CERN openlab, the CERN Quantum Technology Initiative, and IT-related projects funded by the European Commission.

At the workshop, Di Meglio presented the CERN IT department’s new Innovation Roadmap, which will be published in June. This roadmap addresses five main objectives:

  1. Introduce heterogeneous computing infrastructures and software-engineering services/tools;
  2. Scale up data management, data storage and databases towards the requirements of the HL-LHC;
  3. Support the introduction of AI technologies in the community;
  4. Keep the CERN IT department at the forefront of R&D;
  5. Enable open science and boost CERN’s positive impact on society.

“CERN openlab has played an important role in making sure CERN’s computing infrastructure is ready to meet the challenges of LHC Run 3,” says Di Meglio. “This roadmap will set out how the CERN IT department will help drive the innovation needed to meet the massive computing challenges posed by the HL-LHC.”

“I would like to thank Alberto for his excellent stewardship of CERN openlab over the past decade,” says Enrica Porcari, head of the CERN IT department. “During his time, the collaboration has roughly trebled in size, with CERN openlab also growing to include collaborations involving other research organisations. There has also been significant growth in the popular CERN openlab Summer Student programme.”

“I am looking forward to establishing new collaborations and exploring new, emerging technologies through CERN openlab,” says Girone. “This workshop, the first we have held in person at CERN since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, was an excellent way to get this work started.”

CERN openlab CTO co-founds Swiss chapter of “Women in HPC” advocacy group

The four founders of the new chapter of Women in HPC, photographed during a special networking session at last year’s Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing Conference (PASC22) in Basel, Switzerland.

CERN openlab’s Chief Technology Officer, Maria Girone, is one of four founding members of a new Swiss chapter of the Women in HPC (WHPC) advocacy group. The announcement comes on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, which is dedicated to reducing gender disparity in all research fields and at all levels of scientific endeavour.

Women in HPC works to reduce this gender gap in high-performance computing, or “HPC”. Founded in 201[ARP1] 4 at the University of Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, Women in HPC organises awareness-raising workshops and provides support and mentorship for women working in this field.

Along with Girone, the new Swiss chapter of the organisation is founded by Florina Ciorba of the University of Basel in Switzerland, Sadaf Alam of the University of Bristol in the UK and formerly of the Swiss National Computing Centre (CSCS), and Marie-Christine Sawley of the International Centre for Earth Simulation and formerly of both the CMS experiment and Intel (a longstanding partner company in CERN openlab). They have since been joined by Cerlane Leong of CSCS, too.

This chapter is underpinned by a Swiss association called ideas4HPC.This was also created by the leading female computer scientists listed above, with Sawley as president. The team members have seven main goals:

  1. Building a diverse and inclusive HPC workforce
  2. Promoting the benefits of inclusivity
  3. Raising awareness of the under-representation of Women in HPC
  4. Highlighting diversity and inclusivity initiatives
  5. Raising the visibility of women role models in HPC
  6. Helping members of under-represented groups in HPC to build their professional networks
  7. Inspiring key stakeholders in the HPC community to embrace diversity and inclusivity initiatives.

Over the next three years, the founders of this new chapter and association will create targeted scholarships, provide financial support for participation in top conferences, run training sessions for mentors, and organise events promoting inclusivity and diversity in HPC. One of the first events organised under this new chapter will be a workshop at the Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing Conference (PASC23) in Davos, Switzerland, in June.

We are very excited to welcome a new Swiss chapter to the WHPC family,” says Cristin Merritt, Business Management executive for WHPC. “WHPC chapters provide a very accessible option for women and allies to find support and engage with the underrepresentation of women in scientific computing.” She continues: “The Swiss team has a fantastic track record in supporting Women in HPC, and promoting opportunities for women in computational science. We look forward to working with the Swiss chapter and all of the other WHPC chapters over the coming years towards the WHPC mission.”

“I have always been passionate about equity, diversity and inclusion,” says Girone, who is vice-president of the new association and who was also recently appointed as one of the two diversity and inclusion officers for the CERN IT department[LC2] . “We’ve come a long way, but there is still a lot to be done. The creation of this chapter and association is an important concrete action for supporting women and under-represented minorities in HPC, particularly in the key early stages of their careers.”

You can find out more about work at CERN to reduce the gender gap in science on the website of the CERN Diversity and Inclusion Programme. There you will also find information on the Organization’s efforts to improve other aspects of diversity.

 

6th HEP C++ Course and Hands-on Training

“The 6th HEP C++ Course and Hands-on Training - The Essentials” will be held from 6-10 March.

From 6-10 March, a training course will be held at CERN to teach C++ programming skills to particle physicists. The event is called “The 6th HEP C++ Course and Hands-on Training - The Essentials” and is organised jointly by the the Software Institute for Data Intensive Sciences and the Training Working Group of the HEP Software Foundation. The goal of the course is to help members of the particle physics community to better contribute to experiments’ code bases or even to write their own analysis software.

The event will run over three days: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Each day will feature a two-hour interactive lecture in the morning, followed by a two-hour session of related hands-on training exercises in small breakout groups of up to 10 students in the afternoons. The lectures are given by proficient C++ programmers from CERN’s IT-GOV, EP-LBC and EP-SFT groups. Note: the two non-course days (Tuesday and Thursday) may also be used to complete additional exercises.

The event will be held in a hybrid format: morning lectures will be given in a meeting room at CERN (593/R-010) and broadcast over Zoom, while the afternoon sessions will be held in smaller meeting rooms at CERN, as well as in dedicated Zoom breakout rooms for those participating remotely. While remote participation is possible, the organisers encourage to participants to attend the event in person to get the most out of it.

Full details of the training course, including registration, can be found here: https://indico.cern.ch/e/CppSpring23.

The team behind this event typically organises two such courses per year: an “advanced C++” course is planned for mid-late 2023. In case of interest for future events, a waiting list will be made available in parallel to the registration process for the course in March.

Annual CERN openlab Technical Workshop to take place on 16-17 March

The CERN openlab Technical Workshop will be held in-person in the CERN Council Chamber for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2023 CERN openlab Technical Workshop will be held in the CERN Council Chamber on 16-17 March. The event provides an important moment to review progress made in the 28 R&D projects currently being carried out across CERN through this unique public-private partnership. Since 2001, CERN has been working with leading technology companies through CERN openlab to accelerate the development of the cutting-edge computing technologies required by the Organization’s research community.

Today, CERN openlab is working in three main areas: exascale technologies, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. R&D carried out in this final area is closely interwoven with the work of the CERN Quantum Technology Initiative, which held a major workshop in November. CERN openlab also works closely with CERN’s Knowledge Transfer Group to share computing technologies with research communities beyond particle physics.

As well as looking back over 2022, the technical workshop will provide an important opportunity to discuss upcoming plans, including the new CERN IT Innovation Roadmap.

Register for the event here until 13 March. You can also find out more about CERN openlab’s work over the last year on the CERN openlab website, here.

Members of ‘CoE RAISE’ EU project – developing AI approaches for next-generation supercomputers – meet at CERN

Members of CoE RAISE pictured at CERN during the project's 'All Hands' meeting in 2023.

Last week, members of the EU’s CoE RAISE project met at CERN for their “All Hands” meeting. This innovative project is developing artificial-intelligence (AI) approaches for next-generation “exascale” supercomputers, for use across both science and industry. Use cases explored through the project include the optimisation of wind-farm layouts, design of efficient aircraft, improved sound engineering, seismic imaging with remote sensing, and more.

CoE RAISE, The European Center of Excellence in Exascale Computing “Research on AI- and Simulation-Based Engineering at Exascale”, is funded under the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The project launched in 2021 and runs for three years. Discussions to plan for a potential follow-on project were also held during last week’s meeting.

The four-day meeting, which took place in CERN’s Council Chamber, was attended by 54 project members. The participants discussed progress made in their work to develop AI technologies for complex applications in Europe running on future “exascale” high-performance computing (HPC) systems. Exascale refers to the next generation of high-performance computers that can carry out over 1018  floating point operations per second (FLOPS). Today, only the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States has reached this level. However, with more exascale HPC systems just over the horizon, it is important to ensure that AI approaches used in science and industry are ready to capitalise fully on the enormous potential. In June, the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) announced that Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH in Germany has been selected to host and operate Europe’s first exascale supercomputer, which is set to come online next year and will be known as the Joint Undertaking Pioneer for Innovative and Transformative Exascale Research (JUPITER) system.

CoE RAISE is developing innovative AI methods on heterogeneous HPC architectures involving multiple kinds of processors. Such architectures can offer higher performance and energy efficiency, but code must be adapted to use the different types of processors efficiently. The AI methods being developed are focused around nine key use cases and designed to scale well for running on exascale HPC systems.

CoE RAISE supports technology transfer to industry, particularly small- and medium-sized enterprises, as well as running education and training initiatives. On top of this, CoE RAISE also provides consulting and connects to other European initiatives to maximise synergies, exploit opportunities for co-design and share knowledge. All aspects of the project’s work were discussed over the four days at CERN.

Member organisations in the CoE RAISE project include the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, and the Centre Européen de Recherche et de Formation Avancée en Calcul Scientifique (CERFACS). Several leading European Universities are members, as well the companies Bull SAS, a major French IT brand belonging to Atos; ParTec AG, which develops modular supercomputing architectures; and SAFRAN Helicopter Engines.

CERN is also a partner and brings one of the use cases to the project. This work focuses on the improvement of methods for reconstructing particle-collision events at the upgraded High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), which is set to come online in 2029. The HL-LHC will see more particle collisions than ever taking place, producing exabytes of data each year, resulting in unprecedented computing challenges. To reconstruct particle collision events today (with datasets in the order of terabytes or petabytes), hundreds of different algorithms run concurrently: some are traditional algorithms optimised for particular hardware configurations, while others already include AI-driven methods, such as deep neural networks (DNNs). The members of the project team at CERN are working to increase the modularity of systems and ensure code is optimised to fully exploit heterogeneous architectures, as well as increasing the use of machine learning and other AI methods for reconstruction of collisions and classification of particles.

“Supercomputers are reaching the exascale and enabling the delivery of an unprecedented scale of processing resources for HPC and AI workflows,” says Maria Girone, CERN openlab CTO, who leads CERN’s contribution to the project. “The research performed in CoE RAISE will drive the co-design of HPC computing resources for future AI and HPC applications for both science and industry. This meeting enabled us to exchange and develop ideas and to bring new perspectives. It also gave researchers from other domains a unique insight into the environment and challenges facing CERN, enabling cross-fertilisation and understanding.”

“The participants in the meeting – some of them having seen each other for the first time in the project due to COVID-19 restrictions – made new friends and initiated more intensified collaborations on emerging topics, such as the integration of quantum computing in AI and HPC workflows,” says Andreas Lintermann of Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, who coordinates the project. “Members went home with new strategies in mind for fostering their implementations and ensuring sustainability, with the goal of creating impact in the final year of the project and beyond.”

 

— Andrew Purcell

Highlights from the IT Innovation section in 2022

In 2022, CERN openlab summer students returned to the CERN site for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

2022 saw the implementation of a new strategy and new structure for the CERN IT department. Under these, a new “Innovation” section has been created, bringing together CERN openlab, CERN Quantum Technology Initiative (CERN QTI) and several IT-focused EU projects and scouting activities, including collaborations with other research organisations. This recognises the vital need to innovate new computing technologies to support the ambitious upgrade programme for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC): when the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) comes online in 2029, the total computing capacity required by the experiments is expected to be ten times greater than today (read more in the announcement marking the start of building work for the new CERN data centre in Prévessin).

Technical and outreach events kick off a year of important progress

In Q1, CERN openlab held its annual technical workshop. Over 200 people attended this event, which discussed work carried out through 32 joint R&D projects spread across CERN.

In Q2, CERN QTI supported the second ever World Quantum Day celebration, even organising a special scientific symposium at CERN. Talks outlined the early days of quantum science at CERN and what that pioneering effort means for modern research.

The Quantumacy project also came to a successful close at this time. Members of the consortium met in Paris, France, to mark the conclusion of this project, which had been investigating privacy-preserving forms of quantum communication.

On top of this, a new project called SYCLOPS was approved under the new EU Framework Programme, Horizon Europe. This project will work to enable better solutions for AI and data-mining for extremely large and diverse data by democratising AI acceleration using open standards, and enabling a healthy, competitive, innovation-driven ecosystem for Europe and beyond.

Summer students return, as new quantum and AI collaborations forged

Q3 saw two important European research institutes – INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare) and IIT (Italian Institute of Technology) – join CERN’s hub in the IBM Quantum Network. Both institutes are now working closely with CERN to help investigate the full potential of nascent quantum-computing technologies, sharing access to IBM’s fleet of quantum computers via the cloud.

A new EU project called InterTwin began work. It will build the prototype for a universal “digital twin” engine, a software programme that is able to virtually replicate any physical device, product or entity thanks to machine learning and software analytics. The project involves a consortium of 28 participants from 12 countries, bringing together modelling and simulation experts in high-energy physics, radio astronomy, astroparticle physics, climate research and environmental monitoring.

The CERN openlab Summer Student Programme returned as a full, in-person event for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over nine weeks, the students attended specialist lectures and worked on projects involving some of the latest hardware and software technologies. 32 students, representing 19 nationalities, were part of this year’s programme.

This year’s summer students were also joined by the winners of the QHACK quantum machine-learning hackathon and the oneAPI Great Cross-Architecture Challenge, organised by Intel with support from CERN and Argonne National Laboratory in the US.

On top of this, CERN openlab launched its new website, too.

Quantum quest makes quite the quake in quarter “quatre”

The final part of the year was particularly busy for all in the CERN IT department’s Innovation section. The quarter started with the announcement of the Open Quantum Institute. The institute, which was announced in a speech by CERN’s Director-General, will work to ensure that emerging quantum technologies are put to use to tackle key societal challenges. The proposal for this institute was made through GESDA, the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator Foundation, in collaboration with leading research institutes and technology companies. Other founding supporters of the Open Quantum Institute include the University of Geneva, the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and Lausanne (EPFL), Microsoft and IBM.

CERN QTI organised the International Conference on Quantum Technologies for High-Energy Physics (QT4HEP). This first-of-its-kind event brought together members of the quantum technologies community from research and industry. They discussed recent developments in the field and worked to identify activities within particle physics – and other sciences – that can most benefit from the application of quantum technologies. 224 people attended in person, with more following online. Recordings from the event are available here.

Other news from the final quarter of this pivotal year includes the award of a prestigious Italian prize to CERN openlab’s CTO, Maria Girone, and the transfer of technical coordination of the BioDynaMo project from CERN to the University of Cyprus, as part of the project consortium’s goal to seek new applications for its powerful platform for agent-based modelling. Applications for the 2023 CERN openlab Summer Student Programme were also opened in Q4.

Throughout 2022, CERN made important contributions to an EU project called RAISE, The European Center of Excellence in Exascale Computing "Research on AI- and Simulation-Based Engineering at Exascale".  Work is now underway to help prepare the project’s next “all-hands” meeting, which will be held at CERN on 17-20 January.

Strong foundations for important innovation in 2023

2022 was an important year for all projects and initiatives under the umbrella of the new IT Innovation section. The IT department’s new structure and strategy is already helping to ensure that innovation in computing technologies is well targeted and can have maximum impact across the laboratory and CERN’s wider research community. Priorities in 2023 include:

  1. Further work on the integration of cloud and high-performance computing with heterogenous, accelerated computing architectures
  2. The design and deployment of state-of-the-art technologies to support AI applications for physics
  3. Scaling up our quantum algorithms to new quantum devices, promising noise-free operations for the first time.

“2022 was a critical year of transformation for us, during which we have both rationalised our activities around a few core themes and laid out the foundations for longer-term activities for the HL-LHC and beyond,” says Alberto Di Meglio, the head of IT Innovation. “In 2023, we will focus on co-developing and testing with our user communities the solutions they need. We will also strengthen the collaboration on the future of computing, storage and algorithms for science not only within particle physics, but also with other communities like climate and environment, Earth observation, and medical applications.” 

 

 Andrew Purcell          

BioDynaMo modelling platform reaches maturity and seeks new applications

BioDynaMo platform used to study spread of viruses in closed environments

Technical coordination of the BioDynaMo project transferred from CERN to University of Cyprus on 14 November 2022. BioDynaMo is a software platform for creating, running, and visualising all kinds of 3D agent-based simulations. Agent-based simulation is central to a wide range of research fields, from biology to finance and social sciences.

The transfer of the technical coordination of the project to Assistant Professor Vasileios Vavourakis at the University of Cyprus marks a significant milestone in the lifecycle of the project, with the project team now actively seeking new applications for their powerful platform.

The project was launched back in 2015 as part of CERN openlab’s work with Intel on code modernization, and received support from the CERN budget for knowledge transfer to medical applications. Its primary goal was to accelerate biological simulation.

Last year, BioDynaMo released v1.0 of its platform, with important updates also being made in 2022. It has already been adopted by researchers from a range of fields. For example, the platform has been used to simulate the spread of COVID-19 and to examine socio-economic inequities in the Netherlands.

In this new project phase, the consortium will strive to lower the barriers to entry for new users and contributors alike. The consortium will also work to enhance user experience and further improve the code, with the aim of offering even more modularity and flexibility to users from a diverse range of disciplines.

“We are proud to have incubated this successful project,” says Alberto Di Meglio, head of CERN openlab. “With BioDynaMo having reached a sufficient level of technical maturity, the time is now right for the consortium to explore new applications in and partnerships with other research fields, ensuring maximum impact for society.”

“I am very honoured by the consortium board’s decision to entrust me with the role of technical coordinator of BioDynaMo,” says Vavourakis. “I will preserve the great investment that has been made until now, guaranteeing the high-quality code base that is fundamental for reproducible and sustainable research”.

BioDynaMo is one of the technologies selected for the CERN Technology Impact Fund, a new framework that supports CERN technologies with a strong potential to address global societal issues. Through this mechanism, the CERN Knowledge Transfer group identifies promising CERN technologies and – with the help of the CERN & Society Foundation – works to increase their maturity, so that they can be used in concrete applications in support of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

You can read a longer version of this article on the BioDynaMo website, here. You can also follow the BioDynaMo project on Twitter and LinkedIn to learn about exciting new opportunities for collaboration.

Laraib Khan

Laraib joined CERN openlab as an intern in July 2022. She is a student of Media & Communications.She is responsible for assisting Openlab team for day to day internal and external Communications. She also works with the admin & Finance office for CERN openlab summer student programme.

Maria Girone, CERN openlab CTO, awarded Gold Medal of Calabria

Girone travelled to Rome to receive the award, which was given to her in recognition of her contribution to particle-physics research and scientific computing.

On Tuesday 18 October 2022, Maria Girone, the CERN openlab Chief Technology Officer (CTO), was awarded the “La medaglia d’oro Calabria” (the Calabrian Gold Medal). The ceremony took place in the famous “Campidoglio” in Rome, Italy. The prize is awarded by the “Brutium” association, which recognises those from the Calabrian region of Italy for their contribution to society through fields such as science, art, education, industry, and journalism.

Girone received the award for her contribution to particle-physics research and scientific computing. Girone has worked in scientific computing at CERN since 2002, contributing to projects such as the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG), the global grid-computing system used to store, distribute, and analyse the data produced by the experiments on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In 2014 and 2015, Maria was also the software and computing coordinator for one of the four main LHC experiments, CMS. Since 2016[ARP1] [MG2] [MG3] , she has worked as the CTO of CERN openlab, a public-private partnership that accelerates innovation in the cutting-edge computing technologies needed by CERN’s research community.

Girone is also a champion of diversity in scientific computing. Since 2015, she has led the diversity working groups of the International Workshop on Advanced Computing and Analysis Techniques in Physics (ACAT) and the International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP).[ARP4]  She recently proposed a new Swiss Chapter for Women in HPC[ARP5] [MG6]  and is one of four co-founders of IDEAS, a not-for-profit association under Swiss-law for inclusion, diversity, and equity in advanced computational science.

“It is a great privilege to receive this prestigious award from my home region in Italy,” says Girone. “I am proud to honour my birthplace as a scientist at CERN, where I have been working for over two decades now, collaborating with fascinating people from all around the world and driving innovation in research computing. CERN is truly a place like no other.”

Attendees at next week’s International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC22) have the opportunity to learn more about Girone’s work. On Wednesday 16 November at 17:30 CET (10:30 CST, the local time in Dallas, Texas, where the conference is being held), Girone will give a special invited talk on exascale computing challenges at CERN. The presentation will also be available to virtual attendees via the SC22 website.

 

-- Andrew Purcell

Applications open for 2023 CERN openlab summer student programme

Join us and work hands on with cutting-edge computing technologies! (Image: CERN).

Are you a Bachelor's or Master's student in computer science, mathematics, engineering or physics? Do you have a strong computing profile, and would you be interested in working on advanced computing projects at CERN during the summer of 2023? If so, we have just the solution for you...the CERN openlab summer student programme.

CERN openlab is a unique public-private partnership that accelerates the development of cutting-edge computing technologies for the worldwide LHC community and the wider scientific research field. Through CERN openlab, CERN collaborates with leading technology companies and research institutes.

Over nine weeks (June-August 2023), the CERN openlab summer students will work with some of the latest hardware and software technologies, and see how advanced IT solutions are used in particle physics. The students will also participate in a series of lectures prepared for them by computing experts at CERN, in addition to the main lecture series for CERN summer students. Visits to the accelerators and experimental areas are also included in the programme.

CERN is a place where dizzying IT challenges abound. The CERN openlab summer student programme may lead to follow-on projects in your home institute, or may even inspire you to become an entrepreneur in cutting-edge computing technologies.

Full details are available on the CERN carreer website.

Apply by 12 CET noon on 30 January 2023 and open up a world of possibilities!

You can also find out all about the work carried out by our 2022 students here.