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Second LinkSCEEM General User Meeting June 2012

Dr. Klaus KlingmüllerThe Computation-based Science and Technology Research Center (CaSToRC) of The Cyprus Institute (CyI) in collaboration with the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (FZJ/JSC) in Germany, the National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (NARSS) and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) in Egypt organised a 3-day general user meeting on 25-27 June 2012. The General User Meeting was part of the LinkSCEEM-2 project training activities, aiming to prepare the Eastern Mediterranean scientific community for the use of High Performance Computing systems. The event took place at CyI’s premises in Nicosia, Cyprus.

LinkSCEEM-2 project aims at the establishment of a High Performance Computing (HPC) eco-system in the Eastern Mediterranean region by interlinking and coordinating regional compute, storage and visualization resources to form an integrated e-infrastructure. The main objective is to enable scientific research in the region by engaging and supporting research communities with an initial emphasis in the fields of climate research, digital cultural heritage and synchrotron radiation applications. To achieve its mission, the project will link e-resources, provide user support and training, carry out targeted networking activities, and, develop and implement a well-structured HPC resource allocation mechanism.

The General User meeting targeted young researchers from the region and addressed programming training needs of current and prospective HPC users both from Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. Around 40 participants attended the workshop from various countries including Egypt, Greece, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Cyprus.

During the event, researchers and students were instructed on topics such as distributed and parallel programming paradigms, with a focus on OpenMP and OpenACC programming skills and concepts. The agenda contained theoretical sessions followed by hands-on training to enable deep understanding of the programming concepts covered and their application on modern High Performance Computing resources. Trainees were given access to HPC systems of the Computation-based Science and Technology Research Center (CaSToRC), where they had the opportunity to carry out the hands-on exercises and practise what they have learned.

A group picture of the 2nd LinkSCEEM participants