Users of IT4Innovations' computing systems gathered for the 7th Users' Conference on 30 and 31 October 2023 in Ostrava. The conference drew nearly ninety participants from various corners of the Czech Republic, upholding its reputation as a traditional meeting point for researchers and scientists who rely on Ostrava's supercomputers. The first supercomputer was put into operation at IT4Innovations ten years ago, and this conference symbolizes the constant growth, innovation, and scientific progress in the field of computing.
Across these two days, attendees were privy to the latest advancements in diverse scientific fields, spotlighting the pivotal role of supercomputers in their research. For example, scientists from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic have contributed. Together with researchers from VŠB-TUO, they make the most use of supercomputers in IT4Innovations. Scientists from the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Charles University, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Technical University in Prague, Brno University of Technology, and the ELI Beamlines research center presented their research findings too, emphasizing their use of supercomputers.
The poster session, a vital conference component, featured 37 posters spanning various fields. It provided an exceptional forum for in-depth discussions and networking opportunities between the presenters and their fellow conference participants.
Three keynote lectures, selected by the conference programme committee, focused on current research topics.
Pavel Polishchuk from Palacký University in Olomouc discussed The first CACHE challenge: searching for hit molecules in ultra-large chemical databases". The CACHE initiative endeavors to identify treatment possibilities for Parkinson's disease and entails cooperation with researchers worldwide. Pavel Polishchuk's team has developed and used a multi-step pipeline to enable fast searching of potential hits in a database of billions of molecules. In his presentation, he described the challenges and opportunities in mining of ultra-large chemical libraries.
Markéta Faltýnková, representing IT4Innovations, explored "Cinematic Visualization of Large Scientific Data Sets" in her talk, which offered two distinct approaches for achieving high-quality visualizations on IT4Innovations' computing systems. One approach incorporated the internal MESIO library, while the other seamlessly integrated Vistle, an open-source tool for scientific data reading and processing, into Blender software.
Martin Matys from ELI Beamlines steered his lecture toward "Plasma Shutter for Laser-Driven Ion Acceleration and Spiral Pulse Generation." His presentation focused on ion acceleration through laser pulses, a field brimming with applications in medicine and radiotherapy. Martin Matys introduced the audience to the deployment of plasma shutters – thin solid foils – in the sphere of laser-driven ion acceleration and spiral pulse generation.
The conference further provided participants with insights into the upcoming infrastructure developments within the e-INFRA CZ and LUMI-Q consortium projects. The Users Council session was led by Branislav Jansík, Director of Supercomputing Services at IT4Innovations, in conjunction with Martin Friák, Chairman of the IT4Innovations Users Council and a member of the Institute of Physics of Materials at the Czech Academy of Sciences.
With gratitude to all our conference attendees, we eagerly anticipate the next conference edition!
