EuroHPC User Day 2024: Awards Session to Celebrate Excellence in HPC and AI

Best HPC User  

The Best HPC User award was presented to Dr. Ramon Brasser from the Konkoly Observatory at the Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences in Budapest, Hungary. This award recognises Dr. Brasser for his exceptional and efficient use of HPC resources across multiple EuroHPC operational systems. 

The selection was made by the EuroHPC JU Hosting Entities, which comprise the supercomputing centres that host and operate EuroHPC operational systems. Dr. Brasser was selected based on his recently allocated resources for his project on VEGA, along with several key criteria:  

• his effective utilisation of the GPU partition, demonstrating optimal resource allocation;  
• the implementation of an optimised and unique N-body software solution for modern GPUs, ensuring high efficiency;  
• a solid understanding and application of energy conservation strategies; 
• a solid understanding and application of energy conservation strategies, ensuring accuracy;  
• and his respectful behaviour on the system concerning other users, and their support. 

Overall, Dr. Brasser has effectively utilised various EuroHPC partitions through Regular Access calls, including the Vega GPU, MeluXina GPU (Luxembourg), and Vega GPU, while also securing resources via the Development Access call on Discoverer CPU. All his projects focused on the field of universe sciences, specifically on planet formation in the solar system.  

Best Paper  

Professor Agnieszka Janiuk, from the Center for Theoretical Physics at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Poland, has been awarded the Best Paper at EuroHPC User Day 2024 for her project submission "Relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations of merging and collapsing stars”. The peer review committee responsible for evaluating papers submitted by EuroHPC Users for the EuroHPC User Days 2024 Book of Proceedings selected this paper based on several key criteria:   

• the clarity with which she explained complex astrophysical phenomena; 
• her significant contributions to astrophysics with breakthrough insights into star collapses and black holes; 
• and her effective use of EuroHPC resources to simulate high-energy astronomical events. 

Professor Janiuk was awarded 15,000 node hours on the LUMI-C system through the EuroHPC Development Access call.  

Best AI Project 

The Best AI Project award was presented to Dr. Andrea Di Gioacchino for his innovative project titled “CAPHARD: Codon-Assisted Phage-Host Automatic inteRaction Discovery”. Dr. Di Gioacchino leads the data team at PHAGOS, in Paris, France.

This award was selected by the EuroHPC User Forum Coordination Group and recognises Dr. Di Gioacchino’s work in using Generative Language Modeling AI technology to address the critical challenge of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The CAPHARD  project focuses on training large language models using both public and proprietary data to identify the most effective bacteriophages—natural predators of bacteria—for targeting pathogenic bacteria. This breakthrough approach will enable new treatments for antibiotic-resistant infections, playing a crucial role in the fight against antibiotic resistance. 

Dr. Di Gioacchino's research stands at the crossroads of machine learning, microbial biotechnology, and bioinformatics. The project, who received 50,000 node hours, was conducted on the Leonardo BOOSTER partition and was applied for through the AI and Data-Intensive Applications Access Call. 

In congratulating the awardees, Anders Jensen, the EuroHPC JU Executive Director stated: 

“The Awards Session of the EuroHPC User Day 2024 highlights the exceptional talents within our community. It is vital to celebrate our users. These projects drive innovation in science which will provide essential solutions to societal challenges”. 

Background 

The EuroHPC User Day 2024 brought together the EuroHPC Users community to showcase projects that were awarded EuroHPC resources, exchanged feedback with Hosting Entities (HEs), and engage with potential new users.  

The event also provided an opportunity to explore deeper into the opportunities and support provided by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), empowering European users to foster research and innovation in Europe. 

During the summer of 2024, users of the EuroHPC JU systems were invited to submit their manuscripts on projects utilising EuroHPC resources. Submitted papers were evaluated by a peer review committee and selected for presentation at EuroHPC User Day 2024, as well as for publication in the Elsevier Procedia Computer Science of the EuroHPC User Day 2024 Book of Proceedings. The proceedings of User Day 2023 can be consulted on the dedicated page.  

The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) is a legal and funding entity created in 2018 to enable the European Union and EuroHPC JU participating countries to coordinate their efforts and pool their resources with the objective of making Europe a world leader in supercomputing.  

In order to equip Europe with a world-leading supercomputing infrastructure, the EuroHPC JU has already procured nine supercomputers, located across Europe. Three of these EuroHPC supercomputers are now ranked among the world’s top 10 most powerful supercomputers: LUMI in Finland, Leonardo in Italy and MareNostrum 5 in Spain.   

No matter where in Europe they are located, European scientists and users from the public sector and industry can benefit from these EuroHPC supercomputers via the EuroHPC Access Calls to advance science and support the development of a wide range of applications with industrial, scientific and societal relevance for Europe.  

Recently reviewed by means of Council Regulation (EU) 2024/1732, the EuroHPC JU received a new mandate to develop and operate AI factories. These comprehensive open AI ecosystems centered around EuroHPC supercomputing facilities will support the growth of a highly competitive and innovative AI ecosystem in Europe.