Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EXDCI-2 (European eXtreme Data and Computing Initiative - 2)
Berichtszeitraum: 2019-06-01 bis 2020-12-31
The EXDCI-2 project built upon the achievements of the EXDCI project and strived to pursue its goals more aggressively, including stakeholder involvement, development of worldwide connections and strategic road mapping.
The two main strategic goals of the present CSA were:
• Development and advocacy of a competitive European HPC Exascale Strategy
EXDCI-2 supported the implementation of a common European HPC strategy, opened to synergistic areas including HPDA and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The expertise of the partners and stakeholders permitted to elaborate a transversal prospective vision covering innovation opportunities. This was covered by Work Package 4 (WP4) of the project.
• Coordination of the stakeholder community for European HPC at the Exascale
EXDCI-2 promoted joint community structuring and synchronisation. This entailed ensuring EXDCI-2 stakeholder representation in activities such as the development of the HPC SRA, the convergence of PRACE 2 with the upcoming European Data Infrastructure (EDI), the continuation of BDEC activities, the link to the H2020 Societal Challenges, the mapping and analysis of related national and international R&I research agendas. Particular attention was given to involving the CoEs and to the outcomes of FET HPC projects. We sought to facilitate the development of European human resources, reaching out to young talents and academia.
To achieve the strategic goals and mobilise the large HPC and HPDA communities, the project was organised along concrete operational objectives:
• Promotion of Joint Community structuring and synchronisation
• Further develop the ETP4HPC SRA
• Further develop application and applied mathematics roadmaps
• Prepare for targeted research collaborations
• Create synergies with HPC related activities in H2020
The two main strategic goals of the present CSA were:
• Development and advocacy of a competitive European HPC Exascale Strategy
EXDCI-2 supported the implementation of a common European HPC strategy, opened to synergistic areas including HPDA and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The expertise of the partners and stakeholders permitted to elaborate a transversal prospective vision covering innovation opportunities. This was covered by Work Package 4 (WP4) of the project.
• Coordination of the stakeholder community for European HPC at the Exascale
EXDCI-2 promoted joint community structuring and synchronisation. This entailed ensuring EXDCI-2 stakeholder representation in activities such as the development of the HPC SRA, the convergence of PRACE 2 with the upcoming European Data Infrastructure (EDI), the continuation of BDEC activities, the link to the H2020 Societal Challenges, the mapping and analysis of related national and international R&I research agendas. Particular attention was given to involving the CoEs and to the outcomes of FET HPC projects. We sought to facilitate the development of European human resources, reaching out to young talents and academia.
To achieve the strategic goals and mobilise the large HPC and HPDA communities, the project was organised along concrete operational objectives:
• Promotion of Joint Community structuring and synchronisation
• Further develop the ETP4HPC SRA
• Further develop application and applied mathematics roadmaps
• Prepare for targeted research collaborations
• Create synergies with HPC related activities in H2020
Across all WPs, all planned project activities were executed to reach the goals of EXDCI-2. The main actions undertaken are the following:
1. The EuroHPC Summit Week 2019 was held from 13 to 17 May 2019 in Poznań, Poland. The event gathered the main European HPC stakeholders from technology suppliers and HPC infrastructures to scientific and industrial HPC users in Europe.
2. Organisation of:
• The first EXDCI-2 Technical Workshop on 22 September 2018 in Brussels. This provided a good opportunity to have productive discussions in between all WP leaders to share their work plans for the remaining 2 years of the project.
• The PRACE-CoEs-FET HPC-EXDCI Workshop co-organised by PRACE-5IP and EXDCI-2 on 30 and 31 October 2018 in Germany
• The “Collaboration through Communication” workshop on 1 October 2019 in Brussels. This meeting was jointly organised with the PRACE 6IP project.
• The “Workshop on New technological paths for high performance chips targeting HPC and edge” on 5 and 6 November in Brussels.
• The “Virtual Workshop on AI and HPC Convergence” on 26 November 2020.
• The second EXDCI-2 Technical Workshop on 2 and 3 December 2019 in Barcelona aimed to assess the progress made since the beginning of EXDCI-2 and to build on this by constructing a new vision that will help the EU HPC ecosystem progress beyond the existing challenges.
• The BDEC conference series
- From 14 to 16 May 2019 in Poznań, Poland, co-located with EHPCSW 2019.
- Participation in the meetings in the US (03/2018 and 11/2018), in Japan (02/2019).
- From 23 to 26 March 2020 in Porto, Portugal: the live event was cancelled due to the pandemic, and turned into four online meetings from June to November 2020.
3. Participation in:
• The Teratec Forum on 11 and 12 June 2019 in Palaiseau, France.
• International Supercomputing 2019 (ISC 2019) from 16 to 20 June 2019, Germany. EXDCI was presented at the PRACE booth.
• The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis (SC19) from 18 to 21 November 2019 in Denver, Colorado, United States, with a shared booth with PRACE and participation in Birds-of-a-Feather sessions.
• The fourth ORAP Forum on 29 November 2019 in Paris, France.
• The Teratec Digital Forum from 13 to 14 October 2020, virtually.
• International Conference, SC20 from 9 to 19 November 2020 virtually. EXDCI-2 was presented at the virtual PRACE booth.
• The BDEC conference series from 15 to 17 October 2020 in San Diego, United States.
6. Interaction with communities on “upstream technologies”, such as for example the photonics community
7. Analysis of R&I outcome of the FETHPC projects launched in 2016 and 2017
8. Completion of the fourth Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) issued in March 2020.
9. Promotion of horizontal collaboration between major European players in the digital continuum.
10. Document presented to the EuroHPC Governing Board on the impact of the European HPC programme on the HPC value chain.
11. Issue of three White Papers (“European HPC technology research projects”, “Future HPC technologies”, “The future of computing: Will it be Quantum Computing?”)
12. Implementation and promotion of the spin-off project.
1. The EuroHPC Summit Week 2019 was held from 13 to 17 May 2019 in Poznań, Poland. The event gathered the main European HPC stakeholders from technology suppliers and HPC infrastructures to scientific and industrial HPC users in Europe.
2. Organisation of:
• The first EXDCI-2 Technical Workshop on 22 September 2018 in Brussels. This provided a good opportunity to have productive discussions in between all WP leaders to share their work plans for the remaining 2 years of the project.
• The PRACE-CoEs-FET HPC-EXDCI Workshop co-organised by PRACE-5IP and EXDCI-2 on 30 and 31 October 2018 in Germany
• The “Collaboration through Communication” workshop on 1 October 2019 in Brussels. This meeting was jointly organised with the PRACE 6IP project.
• The “Workshop on New technological paths for high performance chips targeting HPC and edge” on 5 and 6 November in Brussels.
• The “Virtual Workshop on AI and HPC Convergence” on 26 November 2020.
• The second EXDCI-2 Technical Workshop on 2 and 3 December 2019 in Barcelona aimed to assess the progress made since the beginning of EXDCI-2 and to build on this by constructing a new vision that will help the EU HPC ecosystem progress beyond the existing challenges.
• The BDEC conference series
- From 14 to 16 May 2019 in Poznań, Poland, co-located with EHPCSW 2019.
- Participation in the meetings in the US (03/2018 and 11/2018), in Japan (02/2019).
- From 23 to 26 March 2020 in Porto, Portugal: the live event was cancelled due to the pandemic, and turned into four online meetings from June to November 2020.
3. Participation in:
• The Teratec Forum on 11 and 12 June 2019 in Palaiseau, France.
• International Supercomputing 2019 (ISC 2019) from 16 to 20 June 2019, Germany. EXDCI was presented at the PRACE booth.
• The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis (SC19) from 18 to 21 November 2019 in Denver, Colorado, United States, with a shared booth with PRACE and participation in Birds-of-a-Feather sessions.
• The fourth ORAP Forum on 29 November 2019 in Paris, France.
• The Teratec Digital Forum from 13 to 14 October 2020, virtually.
• International Conference, SC20 from 9 to 19 November 2020 virtually. EXDCI-2 was presented at the virtual PRACE booth.
• The BDEC conference series from 15 to 17 October 2020 in San Diego, United States.
6. Interaction with communities on “upstream technologies”, such as for example the photonics community
7. Analysis of R&I outcome of the FETHPC projects launched in 2016 and 2017
8. Completion of the fourth Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) issued in March 2020.
9. Promotion of horizontal collaboration between major European players in the digital continuum.
10. Document presented to the EuroHPC Governing Board on the impact of the European HPC programme on the HPC value chain.
11. Issue of three White Papers (“European HPC technology research projects”, “Future HPC technologies”, “The future of computing: Will it be Quantum Computing?”)
12. Implementation and promotion of the spin-off project.
EXDCI-2 contributions (below is a non-exhaustive list of some of the most important ones):
1) Better understanding of the legacy codes issues and values
2) New strategic research agenda that includes the priorities that are gaining importance due to the increasing use of HPC functionality in complex, multi-disciplinary workflows together with AI, IoT, and HPDA workflow phases
3) An analysis of the trends and potential synergies between electronics, photonics and HPC
4) A database to promote FET-HPC projects intellectual property (IP)
5) An analysis of the HPC/HPDA/AI convergence of HPC applications and usages
6) An assessment on the ecosystem that confirms the impact and importance of H2020 funding
All these contributions have led to the transcontinuum initiative (TCI). This initiative aims at implementing the EXDCI vision by:
1) Capturing the idea that infrastructure elements cannot be used independently
2) Providing a coherent and effective view of the cyberinfrastructure for end-to-end applications
Major organisations of the EU ecosystem have accepted to contribute to the TCI.
At long term EXDC-2 contributed to the following expected impacts through its taken actions:
Political / EU
We provided the ecosystem with a comprehensive analysis of the HPC/HPDA/AI landscape at large. This analysis has been addressing technologies (current and future), applications and international state-of-the-art. According to these findings we are proposing a new holistic initiative (TCI) to embrace future societal and application challenges.
Economic
We provided an assessment regarding the legacy codes assets and corresponding needs to preserve these assets. We have prototyped the creation of spin-off for project in order to shorten the innovation to market path. We have inventoried the IP assets created by HPC projects and provided an analysis of ecosystem KPI.
Social
Facing the lack of human resources, we analysed the need for connecting HPC to pupils and propose actions to promote STEM at school.
Technology
Regarding technology, the project impact has been involved in building a new SRA, providing an extensive survey of HPC projects IP.
Science and Innovation
We have proposed the Transcontinuum Initiative (TCI) that implements the EXDCI-2 vision and proposes a new understanding for secured and seamless scientific application support infrastructures and for implementing the AI/HPDA/HPC convergence.
1) Better understanding of the legacy codes issues and values
2) New strategic research agenda that includes the priorities that are gaining importance due to the increasing use of HPC functionality in complex, multi-disciplinary workflows together with AI, IoT, and HPDA workflow phases
3) An analysis of the trends and potential synergies between electronics, photonics and HPC
4) A database to promote FET-HPC projects intellectual property (IP)
5) An analysis of the HPC/HPDA/AI convergence of HPC applications and usages
6) An assessment on the ecosystem that confirms the impact and importance of H2020 funding
All these contributions have led to the transcontinuum initiative (TCI). This initiative aims at implementing the EXDCI vision by:
1) Capturing the idea that infrastructure elements cannot be used independently
2) Providing a coherent and effective view of the cyberinfrastructure for end-to-end applications
Major organisations of the EU ecosystem have accepted to contribute to the TCI.
At long term EXDC-2 contributed to the following expected impacts through its taken actions:
Political / EU
We provided the ecosystem with a comprehensive analysis of the HPC/HPDA/AI landscape at large. This analysis has been addressing technologies (current and future), applications and international state-of-the-art. According to these findings we are proposing a new holistic initiative (TCI) to embrace future societal and application challenges.
Economic
We provided an assessment regarding the legacy codes assets and corresponding needs to preserve these assets. We have prototyped the creation of spin-off for project in order to shorten the innovation to market path. We have inventoried the IP assets created by HPC projects and provided an analysis of ecosystem KPI.
Social
Facing the lack of human resources, we analysed the need for connecting HPC to pupils and propose actions to promote STEM at school.
Technology
Regarding technology, the project impact has been involved in building a new SRA, providing an extensive survey of HPC projects IP.
Science and Innovation
We have proposed the Transcontinuum Initiative (TCI) that implements the EXDCI-2 vision and proposes a new understanding for secured and seamless scientific application support infrastructures and for implementing the AI/HPDA/HPC convergence.