Addressing the challenges of digital innovation: supercomputing for businesses

EuroCC Italy (the Centre of Competence for HPC and AI technologies) is organising a training event dedicated to high-performance computing and its application in industry, running from 16 to 18 March. The event, taking place at SISSA, is being organised jointly with CINECA and the Masters in High Performance Computing programme. It is designed to stimulate the competitiveness of local companies and will end with a round table discussion covering politics, science and business.

In the world of scientific research, High Performance Computing (HPC) is indispensable for developing digital prototypes of large projects, managing huge amounts of data, and speeding up production and management processes: it is also an increasingly important technology for industries seeking to be competitive and at the forefront of digital processing. As a means of offering tools and knowledge in this area to local entrepreneurs, EuroCC Italy is organising three days at SISSA dedicated to the transfer of supercomputing skills between academia and industry. The advanced training course, aimed at members of small and medium enterprises, will end with the annual Masters in High Performance Computing (MHPC) graduation ceremony, followed by an in-depth round table discussion.

"MHPC was the brainchild of SISSA and ICTP, institutes active in frontier research, as a means of building professional expertise in high-performance computing" says Andrea Romanino, Director of SISSA. "It is increasingly important to support initiatives for the transfer of skills and knowledge from academia to industry. SISSA is therefore very happy to host the EuroCC Italy training initiative,and is grateful to CINECA for its participation."

David Vannozzi, General Manager of CINECA (coordinator of EuroCC Italy) comments: "Leonardo, the European supercomputer managed by CINECA and financed by EuroHPC JU and the Ministry of Universities and Research, will come on line by the end of 2022. It will have a computing power of about 250 petaflops, with up to 20% available to European and Italian industries. It is a challenge that offers extraordinary potential, with interesting opportunities for enterprises of all sizes. Initiatives such as the course organised by EuroCC Italy, and the Masters in High Performance Computing programme are essential for training the HPC specialists of the future and allowing Italian industries to seize this opportunity".

At the School of Innovation

The event kicks off on March 16, with the advanced training course "Supercomputing in industry and services. Adding value to production with AI, Big DATA and HPC", organised by EuroCC Italy, the Italian centre of competence for HPC and AI technologies, in collaboration with MHPC and CINECA, the inter-university consortium that represents Italy in the European context of supercomputing. The course, hosted by SISSA, is aimed at entrepreneurs, project managers, R&D personnel and company IT departments. The three-day initiative will be attended by guests from scientific institutions such as Area Science Park and OGS, and national enterprises such as Prometeia, Datasinc, FLOW Matters, beanTech and modeFinance, as well as SISSA and CINECA. Participants will learn about tools for determining their real business needs by defining the critical points of their workflow. They will also be able to explore scientific calculation methodologies for use in their companies and techniques for optimising software or updating the entire hardware infrastructure.

Challenging the present to innovate the future: the MHPC event

The fourth annual MHPC graduation ceremony for the SISSA and ICTP Masters in High Performance Computing will start at 2 pm on 18 March. After presentation of the diplomas and the award for the best thesis of 2020-21, Carlo Cavazzoni, Head of the Research and Development Computation department and Director of Leonardo's HPC Lab, will deliver a lecture. This will be followed by a round table discussion on “The challenges of innovation in today's business: HPC and advanced training to stimulate competitiveness in Italy” with participation by Andrea Romanino, Director of SISSA; Cinzia Zannoni of EuroCC Italy PM - CINECA; Carlo Cavazzoni of Leonardo; Diego Bravar, Vice President of Confindustria Alto Adriatico; Ketty Segatti, Deputy Director of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Central Directorate for Work, Training, Education and the Family; and Luca Rossi, President of the CONFAPI FVG Youth Group.

Please register here to follow the event in streaming.