International HPCSE 2024 conference as seen by the speakers: inspiration and great environment

Within nearly four days, there were over 30 presentations on HPC, applied mathematics, numerical analysis, data analysis, machine learning, quantum computing, and advanced visualisation. Moreover, 41 posters were presented, and intensive discussions were held during the poster session. The conference also included social events, including a welcome dinner and a trip, contributing to networking and exchanging experience.

The conference participants appreciated not only the high professional level of lectures but also the opportunity to establish new collaborations. Some of the invited speakers shared their impressions with us:

Patrick E. Farrell, Professor in the Numerical Analysis group of the University of Oxford and a Tutorial Fellow at Oriel College, Oxford, praises the HPCSE conference as a “wonderful conference with a fantastic venue”. His words about the scientific programme are: “The standard of talks was very high. I greatly enjoyed the talks on developments in finite element software and domain decomposition solvers, as these are close to my research area. I was struck by the remarkable beauty of the visualisations described by Guillermo Marin. I also greatly enjoyed the talk on specialised interior point algorithms by Jacek Gondzio.”

Gianluca Palermo from Politecnico di Milano, who focuses on extreme-scale virtual screening for drug discovery using high-performance computing (HPC) resources, appreciates the conference as “both stimulating and enjoyable” with “perfect organisation and wonderful location”. He primarily highlights the opportunity to have “productive discussions with numerous attendees and other invited speakers”, which stirred up new ideas.

Guillermo Marin, the head of the Scientific Visualisation and Storytelling group at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, finds the conference to be “fantastic” and appreciates “interesting talks, a great poster session, and plenty of time for networking, all in a very beautiful location”. He also highlights that he has become familiar with the work of the IT4Innovations Visualization and Virtual Reality Lab, which is similar to that of his group.

Jakub Mareček, the head of a research group at the Czech Technical University in Prague focused on mathematical optimisation, shares his enthusiasm for modern C++ and its use in numerical mathematics. “I was pleasantly surprised by how many toolkits presented use modern C++. Sometimes, one still thinks more of Fortran in the context of numerical mathematics." He also notes, "I sometimes see optimisation as 'service statistics', science in the service of other sciences. It is nice to see that supercomputing is in a similar vein.”

Pinar Karagoz from Middle East Technical University, a partner of IT4Innovations in the EXA4MIND projects, highlights “a variety of talks and presentations under the umbrella of HPC” and values “perfect organisation and location”. The conference gave her the opportunity “to meet many established researchers and hear about different challenges and solutions, also how HPC contributes to such variety of studies”.

Petr Zapletal from the University of Basel, which deals with computer programs for simulating condensed matter physics on quantum computers, adds to the conference: “The HPCSE 2024 conference was exciting and stimulating. I enjoyed learning new things about supercomputers, scalable algorithms and data visualisation. I was most interested in Josef Šivič's research on machine learning and Jakub Mareček's research on quantum optimisation." He further says: "I really enjoyed the HPCSE conference. I was happy to reach out to the HPC community with my research results. There was a lot of interest in quantum computing from other attendees, which led to many interesting discussions. Overall, it was a very positive experience, in an excellent location surrounded by beautiful scenery.”

Bradley Treeby from University College London, who and his colleagues focus on developing the k-Wave tools used in photoacoustic screening and transcranial brain simulation, shares that he “had a wonderful time at HPCSE 2024". Treeby assesses the poster session as the highlight of the conference: “The depth and variety of the work presented were inspiring, and the format of speed talks followed by in-depth discussions at the posters was really effective for learning and networking.” He concludes: “It was fantastic to reconnect with old colleagues and friends in the HPC community and to meet new people working on exciting projects. The conference provided a great forum for exchanging ideas, learning about the latest advances in the field, and building collaborations.”

Therefore, the HPCSE 2024 conference not only met but often exceeded the expectations of all participants, making it once again an important platform for sharing knowledge and initiating new research collaborations.