New department at CSC
On June 14th, the proposal for a new department at CSC was accepted. The department, which will be called High Performance Computing and Visualization (HPCViz), will focus the research at developing new concepts for improved usage of high-performance computer systems, including modelling and simulation, as well as analysis and synthesis of (typically) visual data.
Professor Erwin Laure will be head of department with Professor Johan Hoffman acting as deputy head. The vision for HPCViz is to be the premium Swedish research group for applied technologies in extreme computing and data visualization, combining computational mathematical modeling, programming environments, and visual data exploration. With this unique combination the department aims to position KTH on the international scene and also to have significant impact on Swedish industry, where the technologies represented by the department have an ever-increasing importance.
HPCViz will benefit from that PDC operates a variety of HPC systems ranging from high-throughput oriented clusters to high-end parallel architectures and novel accelerator based machines. As part of these resources PDC operates the currently most powerful system in the Nordic countries, a 305 TF Cray XE6 system, named Lindgren. The PDC infrastructure forms the backbone for Swedish e-Science and is being used by computational scientists across the country.
The KTH Visualization Studio, funded by the Wallenberg Foundation, will be another great resource for the new department. The Studio is a lab environment and supports KTH’s three assignments; research, education, outreach, and is equipped with a wide array of advanced visualization and interaction technologies.
In order to support the knowledge sharing between industry and academia as well as aligning the research towards commercially relevant use cases, HPCViz will also adopt an inclusive approach to bilateral collaborations with large companies and organisations. The department will build upon the existing collaborations with Microsoft, SenseGraphics, Stockholms Stad, Sustainable Innovation, Kista Mobile Multimedia Network, Tekniska Muséet, EA/Dice, Avalanche, FOI, SAAB, Volvo Cars, Scania, RaySearch Laboratories and several others.
