NEWS

Once the 40th most powerful supercomputer in the world computed its last computational task on Monday, 13th December. Six years after its commissioning, the era of the second supercomputer in Ostrava - the Salomon supercomputer - has come to an end.

Thousands of high-performance computing professionals met again at the international Supercomputing Conference SC21, which took place from 14th to 19th November in St. Louis, USA. IT4Innovations was also among the exhibitors at this supercomputing event.

Ostrava, 15th November 2021 – The 58th edition of the TOP500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers was announced today in St. Louis, USA.  Karolina, the most powerful Czech supercomputer, located at IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center, was ranked 8th worldwide and 3rd among European supercomputers in terms of the most energy-efficient supercomputers in the world.

Until now, observing subatomic structures was beyond the resolution capabilities of direct imaging methods, and this seemed unlikely to change. Czech scientists, however, have presented a method with which they became the first in the world to observe an inhomogeneous electron charge distribution around a halogen atom, thus confirming the existence of a phenomenon that had been theoretically predicted but never directly observed. Comparable to the first observation of a black hole, the breakthrough will facilitate understanding of interactions between individual atoms or molecules as well as of chemical reactions, and it opens a path to refinement of the material and structural properties of various physical, biological, and chemical systems. The breakthrough was published in Science.

Thirty scientists from two research institutes met on Thursday, 4th November, at IT4Innovations in Ostrava to present their research activities to each other and discuss the possibilities of mutual cooperation. The introductory workshop aimed to find synergies in the areas of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence.

A reliable, fast, cheap, and easy-to-use diagnostic method for assessing the quality of beef meat was developed by scientists from the Czech Advanced Technology and Research Institute, CATRIN, of Palacký University in collaboration with colleagues from IT4Innovations, Spain and Brazil. By the method of electrochemical detection alongside using 2D graphene acid prepared in Olomouc, they can detect even small residues of pork meat in beef products. This is important when residues of pork are extremely undesirable for religious, cultural, but also health reasons. The results were published by the renowned journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

The last day of September was a great day for budding computer scientists. This year's Joseph Fourier Awards recognized the work of four young researchers, including our IT4Innovations colleague Martin Golasowski.

As in the previous years, this year our supercomputing centre took part in the Researcher's Night. The evening event, during which hundreds of scientific departments open their doors, took place on Friday 24th September. The main theme of this year's event was TIME. That is to say, a variable we have a lot to say about at IT4Innovations.

On Thursday, 23rd September 2021, a seminar to implement the EOSC (European Open Science Cloud) initiative in the Czech Republic was organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the National Library of Technology, the e-INFRA CZ large research infrastructure and the Technology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Recently, in a press release, we informed about the first realized intercity quantum key distribution link in the Czech Republic, which was launched on 1 July 2021 within the OPENQKD project. The link operates in the optical infrastructure of the Czech research network CESNET and Polish PSNC between the cities of Ostrava (CZE) and Cieszyn (POL).

The e-INFRA CZ consortium has achieved the highest possible score in the international evaluation of large research infrastructures in the Czech Republic, which took place under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. The consortium consists of three independent infrastructures: CESNET, IT4Innovations and CERIT-SC. The evaluation highlighted, among other things, the progress made in merging these infrastructures and the resulting benefit of a unified access to services for users.

Karolina, the latest Czech supercomputer, located at IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center in Ostrava, has reached the 15th place in the Green500 list, which evaluates the most energy-efficient supercomputers in the world.

The e-INFRA CZ consortium has implemented quantum key distribution, which has reached primacy in many ways. Communication secured by encryption through quantum key distribution (QKD) represents a new shift in the field of communication security and addresses the risks associated with the advent of quantum computers, which brings with it the real danger of existing encryption methods being cracked more easily. This is the first national as well as international inter-city distribution of quantum keys in the Czech Republic, specifically to Cieszyn, Poland. The implementation of the distribution is the result of cooperation between CESNET and IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center at VSB - Technical University of Ostrava and the Polish PSNC academic network. 

On Saturday 17th July, we welcomed distinguished guests to IT4Innovations. Frans Timmermans himself came to see the plans and projects of the Moravian-Silesian Region. The second most important man in the European Union makes no secret of the fact that he sees the future in supercomputers. It is also for this reason why he chose our supercomputing centre for his meeting with Czech partners.

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence is becoming part of everyday life. Newly, it could also help in life-threatening events. Czech scientists, including those from IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center, are developing a voicebot that should be activated when emergency lines are extremely overloaded.

IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center has joined the LIGATE project, which will use European supercomputing systems to improve computer-aided drug design. Ostrava's supercomputers will thus contribute their computing power, in rapid response to the global pandemic crisis.

The Karolina supercomputer located at IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center has ranked 69th in the TOP500 list of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. With its two computing parts, Karolina has scored twice in the TOP500 list, namely 69th and 149th. In Europe it ranked 19th and in the Czech Republic it confirmed its dominant position as the most powerful Czech supercomputer.

In January 2019, a project entitled ‘Research and Development of a Functional Sample of a Railway Vehicle Enabling Collection of Data and Software – a Simulator Enabling Generation of Data to Train Obstacle Detection under Simulated Conditions’ was launched at IT4Innovations in cooperation with the IXPERTA s.r.o. company. The main objective of the project is to develop a functional sample of a railway vehicle detecting obstacles in the driving profile. 

The first transparent luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) based on lead-free perovskite nanocrystals was developed by scientists from the Czech Advanced Technology and Research Institute (CATRIN) in collaboration with colleagues from University of Erlangen–Nuremberg, Germany; Brno University of Technology;  and VSB – Technical University of Ostrava. The unique solution overcomes the disadvantages of the existing perovskite solar energy devices, namely the presence of lead and low stability.

On Friday 18th June 2021, the Minho Manifesto Declaration was discussed at the Minho University in Guimarães, Portugal. Its intention is to strengthen research linked to high-performance computing (HPC) and to link more closely the five supercomputing centres that newly boast petascale systems. IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center will also be part of the emerging European network.