Scientists gain access to top European supercomputer
Scientists working on 10 research projects have been
awarded precious computing time on JUGENE, one of the most powerful
supercomputers in the world. The projects, which cover fields as diverse
as astrophysics, earth sciences, engineering and physics, gained access
to JUGENE thanks to the PRACE ('Partnership for advanced computing in
Europe') project.
Scientists in varied disciplines require access to supercomputers to
solve some of the most pressing issues facing society today. PRACE is
meeting this challenge head on by establishing a high performance
computing (HPC) research infrastructure in Europe. Its work is supported
by the Research Infrastructures budget lines of the EU's Sixth and
Seventh Framework Programmes (FP6 and FP7), and it has been identified
as a priority infrastructure for Europe by ESFRI, the European Strategy
Forum on Research Infrastructures.
JUGENE, which is hosted by Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany, is
the first supercomputer in the network and has the distinction of being
Europe's fastest computer available for public research. Competition for
access to this world-class facility is fierce; PRACE received 68
applications requesting a total of 1,870 million hours of computing time
from this first call for proposals. The 10 winning projects, which are
led by scientists in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the
UK, will share over 320 million core computing hours.
The successful projects were selected on the basis of the scientific
and technical excellence, their clear need for access to a top
supercomputer, and the fact that they will be able to achieve
significant research results within their allotted time.
Jochen Blumberger of University College London (UCL) in the UK has
been awarded 24.6 million core hours to investigate electron transport
in organic solar cells. Organic solar cells are a promising alternative
to silicon-based solar cells. In addition to being cheap and easy to
produce, they are light and flexible, meaning they can easily be fitted
to windows, walls and roofs. On the downside, they suffer from a low
light-to-electricity conversion efficiency. One reason for their low
efficiency involves the fate of the photogenerated electrons. Dr
Blumberger's work on JUGENE will advance our understanding of the
processes taking place in organic solar cells.
Another project in the energy field comes from Frank Jenko of the
Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Germany. His 50 million core
hour project, which will shed new light on plasma turbulence, represents
a contribution to the mega international fusion energy project ITER.
Another UCL researcher, Peter Coveney, will use his 17 million core
hour time budget to study turbulent liquids. Predicting the properties
of turbulent fluids is extremely challenging, and Professor Coveney's
work could have implications for our understanding of weather
forecasting, transport and the dispersion of pollutants, gas flows in
engines and blood circulation.
Meanwhile Zoltán Fodor of the Bergische Universität Wuppertal in
Germany has been awarded 63 million core hours to go back in time to the
start of the universe, to a period when infinitesimally small
particles, such as quarks and gluons, combined to form protons and
neutrons which in turn came together to form atomic nuclei. The goal of
Dr Fodor and his team is to analyse the properties of strongly
interacting matter under 'extreme conditions'.
Atmospheric boundary layers are at the heart of the 35 million core
hour project submitted by Harmen Jonker of Delft University in the
Netherlands. Boundary layers change as a result of daytime heating and
wind shear. Understanding them is crucial for the generation of accurate
weather, climate and air quality models.
The other projects awarded access to JUGENE in this round of calls
for proposals focus on molecular dynamics, magnetic reconnection, the
deformation of metals, supernovae and quarks.
For more information, please visit:
PRACE
JUGENE
ESFRI
Source: Community R&D Information Service (CORDIS)