The RISC2 project was also represented, having made it possible, through monetary support, for some students from Latin America to take part – thus continuing its work in the social field. In total, 60 students from 25 different nationalities took part in the initiative.

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The session began with a welcome and introduction by Mateo Valero (BSC), one of the main drivers of this cooperation and a leading name in the field of HPC. This intervention was later complemented by Fabrizio Gagliardi (BSC). Afterward, Elsa Carvalho (INESC TEC) presented the work done in terms of communication by the RISC2 team, an important segment for all the news and achievements to reach all the partners and countries involved.

Carlos J. Barrios Hernandez then presented the work done within the HPC Observatory, a relevant source of information that European and Latin American research organizations can address with HPC and/or AI issues.

The session closed with an important and pertinent debate on how to strengthen cooperation in HPC between the European Union and Latin America, in which all participants contributed and gave their opinion, committing to efforts so that the work developed within the framework of RISC2 is continued.

What our partners had to say about the meeting?

Rafael Mayo Garcia, CIEMAT:

“The policy event organized by RISC2 in Brussels was of utmost importance for the development of HPC and digital capabilities for a shared infrastructure between EU and LAC. Even more, it has had crucial contributions to international entities such as CYTED, the Ibero-American Programme for the Development of Science and Technology. On the CIEMAT side, it has been a new step beyond for building and participating in a HPC shared ecosystem.”

Esteban Meneses, CeNAT:

“In Costa Rica, CeNAT plays a critical role in fostering technological change. To achieve that goal, it is fundamental to synchronize our efforts with other key players, particularly government institutions. The event policy in Brussels was a great opportunity to get closer to our science and technology ministry and start a dialogue on the importance of HPC, data science, and artificial intelligence for bringing about the societal changes we aim for.”

Esteban Mocskos, UBA:

“The Policy Event recently held in Brussels and organized by the RISC2 project had several remarkable points. The gathering of experts in HPC research and management in Latin America and Europe served to plan the next steps in the joint endeavor to deepen the collaboration in this field. The advance in management policies, application optimization, and user engagement are fundamental topics treated during the main sessions and also during the point-to-point talks in every corner of the meeting room.
I can say that this meeting will also spawn different paths in these collaboration efforts that we’ll surely see their results during the following years with a positive impact on both sides of this fruitful relationship: Latin America and Europe.”

Sergio Nesmachnow, Universidad de la República:

“The National Supercomputing Center (Uruguay) and Universidad de la República have led the development of HPC strategies and technologies and their application to relevant problems in Uruguay. Specific meetings such as the policy event organized by RISC2 in Brussels are key to present and disseminate the current developments and achievements to relevant political and technological leaders in our country, so that they gain knowledge about the usefulness of HPC technologies and infrastructure to foster the development of national scientific research in capital areas such as sustainability, energy, and social development. It was very important to present the network of collaborators in Latin America and Europe and to show the involvement of institutional and government agencies.

Within the contacts and talks during the organization of the meeting, we introduced the projecto to national authorities, including the National Director of Science and Technology, Ministry of Education and Culture, and the President of the National Agency for Research and Innovation, as well as the Uruguayan Agency for International Cooperation and academic authorities from all institutions involved in the National Supercomputing Center initiative. We hope the established contacts can result in productive joint efforts to foster the development of HPC and related scientific areas in our country and the region.”

Carla Osthoff, LNCC:

“In Brazil, LNCC is critical in providing High Performance Computing Resources for the Research Community and training Human Resources and fostering new technologies. The policy event organized by RISC2 in Brussels was fundamental to synchronizing LNCC efforts with other government institutions and international  entities. On the LNCC side, it has been a new step beyond building and participating in an HPC-shared ecosystem.

Specific meetings such as the policy event organized by RISC2 in Brussels  were very important to present the network of collaborators in Latin America and Europe and to show the involvement of institutional and government agencies.

As a result of joint activities in research and development in the areas of information and communication technologies (ICT), artificial intelligence, applied mathematics, and computational modelling, with emphasis on the areas of scientific computing and data science, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) have been signed between LNCC and Inria/France. As a  result of new joint activities, LNCC and INESC TEC/Portugal are starting  collaboration through INESC TEC International Visiting Researcher Programme 2023.”

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A country that does not have the computational capacity to solve its own problems will have no alternative but to try to acquire solutions provided by others. One of the most important aspects of sovereignty in the 21st century is the ability to produce mathematical models and to have the capacity to solve them. Today, the availability of computing power commensurate with one’s wealth exponentially increases a country’s capacity to produce knowledge. in the developed world, it is estimated that for every dollar invested in supercomputing, the return to society is of the order of US$ 44(1) and to the academic world US$ 30(2). For these reasons, HPC occupies an important place on the political and diplomatic agendas of developed countries. 

In Latin America, investment in HPC is very low compared to what’s the US, Asia and Europe are doing. In order to quantify this difference, we present the tables below, which show the accumulated computing capacity in the ranking of the 500 most powerful supercomputers in the world – the TOP500(3) – (Table 1), and the local reality (Table 2). Other data are also included, such as the population (in millions), the number of researchers per 1,000 inhabitants (Res/1000), the computing capacity per researcher (Gflops/Res) and the computing capacity per US$ million of GPD. In Table 1, we have grouped the countries by geographical area. America appears as the area with the highest computing capacity, essentially due to the USA, which has almost 45% of the world’s computing capacity in the TOP500. It if followed by Asia and then Europe. Tis TOP500 list includes mainly academic research centres, but also industry ones, typically those used in applied research (many private ones do not wish to publish such information for obvious reasons). For example, in Brazil – which shows good computing capacity with 88,175 TFlops – the vast majority is in the hands of the oil industry and only about 3,000 TFlops are used for basic research. Countries listed in the TOP500 invest in HPC from a few TFlops per million GDP (Belgium 5, Spain 7, Bulgaria 8), through countries investing in the order of hundreds (Italy 176, Japan 151, USA 138), to even thousands, as is the case in Finland with 1,478. For those countries where we were able to find data on the number of researchers, these range from a few Gflops per researcher (Belgium 19, Spain 24, Hungary 52) to close to 1,000 GFlops, i.e. 1 TFlop (USA 970, Italy 966), with Finland surpassing this barrier with 4,647. Note that, unlike what happens locally, countries with a certain degree of development invest every 3-4 years in supercomputing, so the data we are showing will soon be updated and there will be variations in the list. For example, this year a new supercomputer will come into operation in Spain(4), which, with an investment of some 150 million euros, will give Spain one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe – and the world.

Table 1. HPC availability per researcher and relative to GDP in the TOP500 countries (includes HPC in industry).

The local reality is far from this data. Table 2 shows data from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. In Chile, the availability of computing power is 2-3 times less per researcher than in countries with less computing power in the OECD and up to 100 times less than a researcher in the US. In Chile, our investment measured in TFlops per million US$ of GDP is 166 times less than in the US; with respect to European countries that invest less in HPC it is 9 times less, and with respect to the European average (including Finland) it is 80 times less, i.e. the difference is considerable. It is clear that we need to close this gap. An investment go about 5 million dollars in HPC infrastructure in the next 5 years would close this gap by a factor of almost 20 times our computational capacity. However, returning to the example of Spain, the supercomputer it will have this year will offer 23 times more computing power than at present and, therefore, we will only maintain our relative distance. If we do not invest, the dap will increase by at least 23 times and will end up being huge. Therefore, we do not only need a one-time investment, but we need to ensure a regular investment. Some neighbouring countries are already investing significantly in supercomputing. This is the case in Argentina, where they are investing 7 million dollars (2 million for the datacenter and 5 million to buy a new supercomputer), which will increase their current capacities by almost 40 times(5).

Table 2. HPC availability per researcher and relative to GDP in the region (*only HPC capacity in academia is considered in this table).

For the above reasons, we are working to convince the Chilean authorities that we must have greater funding and, more crucially, permanent state funding in HPC. In relation to this, on July 6 we signed a collaboration agreement between 44 institutions with the support of the Ministry of Science to work on the creation of the National Supercomputing Laboratory(6). The agreement recognised that supercomputers are a critical infrastructure for Chile’s development, that it is necessary to centralise the requirements/resources at the national level, obtain permanent funding from the State and create a new institutional framework to provide governance. In an unprecedented inter-institutional collaboration in Chile, the competition for HPC resources at the national level is eliminated ad the possibility of direct funding from the State is opened up without generating controversy.

Undoubtedly, supercomputing is a fundamental pillar for the development of any country, where increasing investment provides a strategic advantage, and in Latin America we should not be left behind.

By NLHPC

References

(1) Hyperion Research HPC Investments Bring High Returns

(2) EESI-2 Special Study To Measure And Model How Investments In HPC Can Create Financial ROI And Scientific Innovation In Europe 

(3) https://top500.org/ 

(4) https://www.lavanguardia.com/ciencia/20230129/8713515/llega-superordenador-marenostrum-5-bsc-barcelona.html

(5) https://www.hpcwire.com/2022/12/15/argentina-announces-new-supercomputer-for-national-science/

(6) https://uchile.cl/noticias/187955/44-instituciones-crearan-el-laboratorio-nacional-de-supercomputacion

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Date: March 15, 2023 | 4 p.m. (UTC)

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Date: February 22, 2023 | 4 p.m. (UTC)

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Fabrizio Gagliardi, director of the RISC2, says “I feel particularly honored by this recognition on behalf of all the project members who have worked so hard to achieve in such a short time, and with limited resources, a considerable impact in promoting HPC activities in Latin America in collaboration with Europe”.

Editors’ Choice: Best HPC Collaboration (Academia/Government/Industry)

The RISC2 project, following the RISC2 Project, aims to promote and improve the relationship between research and industrial communities, focusing on HPC application and infrastructure deployment, between Europe and Latin America. Led by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), RISC2 brings together 16 partners from 12 different countries.

About the HPCwire Readers’ and Editors’ Choice Awards

The list of winners was revealed at the SC22 HPCwire booth and on the HPCwire website.

The coveted annual HPCwire Readers’ and Editors’ Choice Awards are determined through a nomination and voting process with the global HPCwire community, a well a selections from the HPCwire editors. The awards are an annual feature of the publication and constitute prestigious recognition from the HPC community . They are revealed each year too kick off the annual supercomputing conference, which showcases high performance computing, networking, storage, and data analysis.

“The 2022 Readers’ and Editors’ Choice Awards are exceptional, indeed. Solutions developed with HPC led the world out of the Pandemic, and we officially broke the Exascale threshold – HPC has now reached a billion, billion operations per second!” said Tom Tabor, CEO of Tabor Communications, publishers of HPCwire. “Between our worldwide readership of HPC experts and the most renowned panel of editors in the industry, the Readers’ and Editors’ Choice Awards represent resounding recognition of HPC accomplishments throughout the world. Our sincerest gratitude and hearty congratulations go out to all of the winners.”

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RISC2 was responsible for the organization of the “HPC and Data Sciences meet Scientific Computing” workshop, on September 26, which gathered 15 participants. This workshop discussed different topics, such as Scientific Machine Learning, High Performance Scientific Computing, and Data Science. Álvaro Coutinho, Marta Mattoso (from COPPE/Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), Frédéric Valentin (from the National Laboratory for Scientific Computing), Luc Giraud, Stéphane Lanteri, and Patrick Valduriez (from Inria) were the organizers of the workshop.

RISC2 also organized a tutorial about physics-informed neural networks. Our partners from Brazil, Álvaro Coutinho and Romulo Montalvão, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, António Tadeu Gomes and Frédéric Valentin, from the National Laboratory for Scientific Computing, were the instructors of the session.

Our partners Carlos Barrios, from the Universidad Industrial de Santander, was one of the General Chairs of the Conference. “With 130 participants from all over the world, CARLA 2022 was a space of “rediscover” (to rediscover us) after two years in virtual mode. More than the scientific tracks and the panels, CARLA 2022 allowed us to discuss the challenges and the strengthening of collaboration between the partners (old and new)”, says Carlos Barrios.

Various RISC2 members also gave different presentations. Alba Cervera-Lierta, from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, was one of the Keynote Speakers of the CARLA Conference, with a presentation about Quantum Computing. Esteban Meneses, from CeNAT, participated in a presentation about “Implementing a GPU-Portable Field-Line Tracing Application with OpenMP Offload”. Pablo Mininni, from the University of Buenos Aires, was responsible for one of the invited talks about “Multi-level parallelisation of computational fluid dynamics codes using CUDA, MPI and OpenMP.”

CARLA is an international conference that provides a forum to foste the growth and strength of the HPC community in Latin America through the exchange and dissemination of new ideas, techniques, and research in HPC and its application areas.

Also during the conference, the RISC2 members had a networking meeting with the SCALAC members, reinforcing the partnership with the SCALAC network.

About CARLA 2022:

“CARLA 2022 was a space of “rediscover” (to rediscover us) after two years in virtual mode. More than the scientific tracks and the panels, CARLA 2022 allowed us to discuss the challenges and the strengthening of collaboration between the partners (old and new)”.

Carlos Barrios Hernandez,  Universidad Industrial de Santander

“Having the RISC2 project supporting a networking dinner in CARLA was crucial in building up the next research collaboration we want to have in the region. I am thoroughly satisfied with the experience of connecting with European and Latin American peers”.

Esteban Meneses, CeNAT

“Among the most important elements, I can highlight the quality and variety of paper presented. This indicates to me that the Latin American HPC community is growing and getting stronger. In addition, I was able to notice efforts to generate relations between Europe and Latin America through the RISC2 project”.

Elvis Rojas Ramírez, CeNAT

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The workshop aimed to exchange experiences, results, and best practices of collaboration initiatives between Europe and Latin America, in which HPC was essential, and to discuss how to work towards sustainability by reinforcing the bridges between the HPC communities in both regions. The workshop was organized by our partners Esteban Meneses from CeNAT, Fabrizio Gagliardi from BSC, Bernd Mohr from JSC, Carlos J. Barrios H. from UIS, and Rafael Mayo-Gacía from CIEMAT.

The workshop was opened with a keynote by Daniele Lezzi from BSC who reviewed the EU-LATAM collaboration on HPC. Six more presentations highlighted research work from Latin America and collaborative work between organizations on both continents. More information about the workshop including a detailed program can be found here.

The RISC2 project supported the IEEE Cluster Conference, a major international forum for presenting and sharing recent accomplishments and technological developments in the field of cluster computing, as well as the use of cluster systems for scientific and commercial applications by organizing a networking event at the end of the workshop day.

Our partner Esteban Meneses, from National High Technology Center in Costa Rica and one of the RISC2 partners, was one of the Publicity Co-Chairs of the IEEE Cluster 2022 Conference.

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The BCS-CNS hosted the ACM Summer School 2022. From 29 August to 2 September 2022, students, researchers, and professors from all over the world gathered to discuss High-Performance Computing (HPC), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning.

The RISC2 project supported the participation of Latin American students. We had the opportunity to travel from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Costa Rica to connect with leading researchers in HPC at the ACM Summer School and boost our professional careers. For some of us, it was our first time in Europe. For others, it was the first time we had the chance to visit a research centre that hosts a TOP500 supercomputer such as Mare Nostrum. We shared our latent curiosity to learn, meet, and relate to people from all over the world.

We were welcomed to the ACM School by a legend in the world of HPC, Professor Mateo Valero, director of the BSC. World-class lecturers and researchers introduced us to topics that we had only read about in scientific articles, like specialized processors for machine learning, neuromorphic engineering, technical software development for new architectures, and vector accelerators. We could delve into the state-of-the-art of many lines of study, opening our minds in countless ways. We faced new challenges and found new perspectives that would allow us to advance our research projects and complete our graduate degrees.

Throughout the week, we met colleagues from all over the world with different lines of research, projects, and fields of study. This opportunity allowed us to create new relationships, nurtured us at a cultural level, and built new ties of friendship and possible professional contributions in the future, connecting Europe with Latin America. Likewise, we strengthened relations between Latin Americans, usually separated despite being neighbours. Conversations that initially arose with academic topics ended with more trivial issues, all accompanied by a cup of coffee or even a mate brought directly from Argentina. These conversations go hand in hand with great minds and unique people.

Professors like Valerie Taylor from the Argonne National Laboratory, Charlotte Frenkel from the Delft University of Technology, Luca Benini from the Università di Bologna and ETHZ, and Jordi Torres from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, among many others, allowed us to be part of a world that, in many cases, is hard to reach for many students in Latin America. Thanks to the RISC2 project, we had the opportunity to be part of this process, learn and bring back to our countries the knowledge about state of the art in HPC architectural trends and a new vision of the world of computing.

At the end of an intense week of study and conversations, of new knowledge and new friends, we returned to our countries of origin. Together, we have brought a new vision of the world of computing, new contacts, and many new perspectives that we can apply in our studies and share with our colleagues in the research groups and, perhaps, start new foci of study.

Finally, we hope to return and meet again, make new friends, share the knowledge acquired and our experiences, and further deepen the ties within Latin America and between Europe and Latin America. We hope that other fellow Latin Americans will also benefit from similar opportunities and that they can live these kinds of experiences. The RISC2 project gave us a unique opportunity, so we want to thank them and all of those who made it possible.

By:

• Claudio Aracena, University of Chile
• Christian Asch, CeNAT, Costa Rica
• Luis Alejandro Torres Niño, UIS, Colombia
• Matías Mazzanti, UBA, Argentina
• Matheus Borges Seidel, UFRJ, Brazil

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