News collection

September 17, 2010

PRACE awards 40.4 million compute hours to Prof. Carloni
Ten European research projects, one of them by Prof. Carloni (GRS), have been awarded access to the PRACE infrastructure. In total 321.4 Million compute core hours were granted. Sixty-eight applications requesting a total of 1870 Million compute hours were received in this call, which was the first opportunity for researchers to apply for PRACE resources.
The successful projects will have access to JUGENE, IBM BlueGene/P, hosted by the Gauss-Centre for Supercomputing member site in Jülich, Germany, which is the first Petascale HPC system available to researchers through PRACE. It is the fastest computer in Europe available for public research.
Prof. Carloni's project "Excess proton at water/hydrophobic interfaces: A Car-Parrinello MD study" has been awarded 40.4 million core-hours. His research group will perform ab initio molecular dynamics of an excess proton in the presence of a water/decane mixture as used experimentally. They plan to calculate the free energy of the process using thermodynamic integration and determine at which distance from the surface it is most probable that the proton localizes.
More information on PRACE and other successful project can be found here.

September 14, 2010
Best paper award at ICPP 2010 conference
Our Laboratory for Parallel Programming received the best paper award of the International Conference on Parallel Processing (ICPP), which currently takes place in San Diego, California. The award, which was assigned for the paper "Identifying the root causes of wait states in large-scale parallel applications", is shared by the authors David Böhme (AICES, JSC), Markus Geimer (JSC), Felix Wolf (GRS, JSC) and Dr. Lukas Arnold (JSC).
The ICPP conference provides a forum for engineers and scientists in academia, industry and government to present their latest research findings in any aspects of parallel and distributed computing.

September 6-10, 2010
Workshop "Introduction to Computational Fluid Dynamics"
In September, the workshop "Introduction to Computational Fluid Dynamics" will take place at the German Research School for Simulation Sciences in Aachen. It deals with current numerical methods for Computational Fluid Dynamics, with lectures and hands-on sessions. More information can be found here.

August 1, 2010
Founding President Prof. Müller-Krumbhaar followed by Dr. Drewes on executive board, Prof. Behr new President
Prof. Heiner Müller-Krumbhaar, Founding President of the German Research School for Simulation Sciences, has officially retired from his position as member of the executive board. His successor is Dr. Norbert Drewes, Secretary General of JARA (Jülich Aachen Research Alliance) and new Vice President from August 1, 2010. Prof. Marek Behr, member of the executive board and Vice President since August 2008, has become the new President of the German Research School. 

July 2010
Prof. Koch part of Research Group 1346
Research Group 1346, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), comprises 25 scientists at 16 research institutions. The number stands for the topic “Dynamical Mean-Field Approach with Predictive Power for Strongly Correlated Materials”.
The DFG will initially fund this project for three years with a total volume of around € 2.4 million.
Prof. Eva Pavarini from the Institute of Solid State Research (IFF) will represent the project in Jülich. Due to her good experience with the Jülich supercomputers, the main objective of work at Jülich will be the simulation of strongly correlated systems with massively parallel supercomputers. In addition to the invaluable advantages of networking with working groups that rank top in the world, the research group will fund two positions for PhD students, one in the team of Prof. Eva Pavarini and one in the team of Prof. Erik Koch from the German Research School for Simulation Sciences (GRS). Prof. Koch is the second JARA scientist involved in the research group.
Source and more information: JARA webpages

April 28, 2010
Official opening of the German Research School for Simulation Sciences in Jülich
On April 28, representatives from government, industry and science officially opened the new building of the German Research School for Simulation Sciences on the campus of Forschungszentrum Jülich. Professors, students, doctoral candidates and industrial partners of the German Research School demonstrated the chances, which are offered by simulations on high performance computers for the analysis of complex issues in different areas.
The German Research School for Simulation Sciences, a joint venture of RWTH Aachen and Forschungszentrum Jülich, offers programs for Master's students and doctoral candidates with access to the most advanced supercomputers in Europe. The study comprises all relevant areas of computer simulations. These range from the disciplines of physics, chemistry and biology to the interdisciplinary subjects of numerics and computer science.
The German Research School is financed in equal parts by the five partners BMBF, MIWFT, Helmholtz Association, RWTH Aachen University and Forschungszentrum Jülich. The partners were represented by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Federal Minister for Education and Research, Tomas Rachel (MdB), the State Secretary Dr. Michael Stückradt from the Ministry of Innovation, Science, Research and Technology of North Rhine-Westphalia, the President of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Mlynek, the Rector of RWTH Aachen University, Prof. Dr. Ernst Schmachtenberg, and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Forschungszentrum Jülich, Prof. Dr. Achim Bachem.
The new two-story building on the Jülich campus provides lecture, study, and conference rooms to support the new English-language Master's program "Simulation Sciences" and to host the two research groups of Prof. Dr. Paolo Carloni (Computational Biophysics) and Prof. Dr. Erik Koch (Computational Materials Science).

   
photo: Forschungszentrum Jülich
For larger pictures and and more information, click here.

January 18, 2010
German Research School on Jülich campus: finally under one roof
Almost two weeks ago, the first employees of the German Research School for Simulation Sciences (GRS) moved into their new offices on campus here at Jülich. On 18 January, the new building (building no. 16.15) was officially unveiled. The building will house the two working groups Computational Biophysics (Prof. Paolo Carloni) and Computational Materials Science (Prof. Erik Koch) as well as the administration for the German Research School. Furthermore, employees and students can avail of seminar and conference rooms, as well as rooms for group work.

photo: Forschungszentrum Jülich

November, 2009
Official opening of the German Research School for Simulation Sciences in Aachen
The joint venture for education and research of RWTH Aachen University and Forschungszentrum Jülich opened its premises in Aachen. Graduate students are offered courses leading to a novel master's degree in Simulation Sciences, while postgraduates conduct doctoral research in this field.

On Friday, November 13, 2009, the Aachen premises of the German Research School for Simulation Sciences (GRS) were officially opened. The new four-story building provides lecture, study, and conference rooms on two levels to support the new English-language master's program "Simulation Sciences".
The guests of honor, Professor Ernst Schmachtenberg (Rector of RWTH Aachen), Professor Achim Bachem (Chairman of the Board of Directors of Forschungszentrum Jülich), and Klaus Sachs (Ministerialrat in the Ministry of Innovation, Science, Research and Technology of North-Rhine Westphalia) welcomed the invitees. GRS President Professor Heiner Müller-Krumbhaar (JARA-SIM, Forschungszentrum Jülich) and Vice-President Professor Marek Behr (JARA-SIM, RWTH Aachen) looked back on the origin and development of the German Research School, quoting many anecdotes and describing the current status. The event ended with the presentation of the four new GRS chairs, given by Professor Sabine Roller and Professor Felix Wolf.
In the framework of the RWTH Wissenschaftsnacht, the new premises were then open to everyone. The two public lectures held by Professor Roller on computer simulation in aerospace engineering and Dr Binh Trieu on quantum computers were attended by so many interested visitors that many had to listen from the hallway or even through the street-level windows of the lecture hall.
The GRS currently has four chairs: Applied Supercomputing in Engineering (Professor Roller), Parallel Programming (Professor Wolf), Computational Biophysics (Professor Carloni) and Computational Materials Science (Professor Koch). Students with a first degree in the field of natural or engineering sciences, computer science or mathematics, can take part in the master's program "Simulation Sciences". Within the doctoral program, successful applicants can do research at one of the four new chairs or at one of the work groups associated with JARA-SIM. Resulting from the connection to JARA-SIM, the highly qualified students and junior scientists receive direct access to supercomputers and visualization systems. They will become the future experts in the field of supercomputing simulation technologies.
The inauguration of the GRS on the campus of Forschungszentrum Jülich is planned to take place at the beginning of 2010.

   
From left to right: Professor Marek Behr (Vice President GRS), Professor Heiner Müller-Krumbhaar (President GRS), Manfred Nettekoven (Chancellor RWTH), Professor Ernst Schmachtenberg (Rector RWTH), Klaus Sachs (Ministerialrat MIWFT NRW), Professor Achim Bachem (Chairman of the Board of Directors of FZJ); Professor Sabine Roller (GRS), Professor Felix Wolf (GRS)
photo: RWTH

November 15, 2009
The German Research School for Simulation Sciences at SC09
Meet the German Research School for Simulation Sciences at SC09, this year's International Conference on High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis held at Portland, Oregon, from November 14-20, 2009. We will showcase our master's and doctoral programs in Simulation Sciences, as well as the excellent research opportunities we offer in this field, at booth #2255 of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre.
On Thursday, November 19, you can learn even more on how to become a fellow of the German Research School at the SC09 Student Job Fair, which takes place from 10:30 AM to 1:00 PM PST in rooms A103/A104 and A105 of the Portland Convention Center. You will find us in room A105 at table #8. We are looking forward to seeing you at SC09!

November 13, 2009
Official opening
On November 13, 2009, we will celebrate the official opening of our new building in Aachen. The event will take place within the RWTH-Wissenschaftsnacht. Two talks will be given in the new building, at 9 and 10 pm. Short abstracts you find here.
Most of the mandatory modules of the master's program Simulation Sciences are currently lectured there. The first fellows moved in, more will follow soon.

October 16-18, 2009
German Research School sailing trip
From October 16 to 18 a large group of German Research School fellows went on a sailing trip on the Ijsselmeer. It was a very nice weekend with cold but sunny weather. All of the participants learned the very basics of sailing and living on a sailing boot. Thanks a lot to Prof. Müller-Krumbhaar and Prof. Behr for the event and the organization!

May 26, 2009
Europe's fastest computer unveiled in Jülich
No less than three supercomputers for European research were unveiled on 26 May in Jülich in a ceremony attended by the Federal Minister for Education and Research, Prof. Dr. Annette Schavan, and the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Dr. Jürgen Rüttgers: the petaflop computer JUGENE, the supercomputer JUROPA and the fusion computer HPC-FF. With a computing power of one petaflop/s, that is to say a trillion arithmetic operations per second, JUGENE is currently the fastest computer in Europe.
More information can be found here (webpages Forschungszentrum Jülich).

April 20, 2009
Nano-sonar uses electrons to measure under the surface
Just as sonar sends out sound waves to explore the hidden depths of the ocean, electrons can be used by scanning tunnelling microscopes to investigate the well-hidden properties of the atomic lattice of metals. As researchers from Göttingen, Halle and Jülich now report in the prestige journal Science, they succeeded in making bulk Fermi surfaces visible in this manner. Fermi surfaces determine the most important properties of metals.
Seeing the Fermi Surface in Real Space by Nanoscale Electron Focusing; Alexander Weismann, Martin Wenderoth, Samir Lounis, Peter Zahn, Norbert Quaas, Rainer G. Ulbrich, Peter H. Dederichs and Stefan Blügel; Science (February 27, 2009)
Science 323 (5918), 1190

December 4, 2008
Novel quantum simulator used to create and investigate new materials
Future technologies ranging from information technology to high-temperature superconductivity require new materials with tailored electronic properties. A novel quantum simulator consisting of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice functions as a construction kit with which scientists can create and investigate new materials. A physicist from the German Research School for Simulation Sciences has now succeeded, together with colleagues from the Universities of Mainz and Cologne, in demonstrating one of the most dramatic electronic phenomena with the aid of this experimental setup. The high-impact journal Science reports on this in its latest issue: Metallic and Insulating Phases of Repulsively Interacting Fermions in a 3D Optical Lattice; U. Schneider, L. Hackermueller, S. Will, Th. Best, I. Bloch, T. A. Costi, R. W. Helmes, D. Rasch, A. Rosch; Science (December 5, 2008)

November 10, 2008
The German Research School for Simulation Sciences at SC08
Meet the German Research School for Simulation Sciences at SC08, the International Conference on High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis at Austin, Texas, November 15-21, 2008. You can find us at the booth of Jülich Supercomputing Centre (#2621).

September 17, 2008
Master's course admission application now open
Applications are now open for admission to the Master's course in Simulation Sciences. More...

September 12, 2008
New Cell-based HPC cluster system acquired
Supported by IBM, the German Research School for Simulation Sciences has acquired a high-performance computer system based on the latest implementation of the Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.) architecture. This IBM system with 35 compute nodes, 8 GB memory per node, InfiniBand interconnect, and a total computational capability of 7 Tflop/s is deployed in Jülich and will be operated by the Jülich Supercomputing Centre. More...

August 7, 2008
Doctoral program admission application now open
Applications are now open for the German Research School's doctoral program. More...

July 1, 2008
Work on new design in progress


A new corporate design for the German Research School for Simulation Sciences is currently being developed. The new design includes a new logo (shown above) and a complete makeover of this website (planned for September).

April 29, 2008
First doctoral candidates welcomed
With a reception at the Forschungszentrum's Faculty Club, the German Research School for Simulation Sciences welcomed its first doctoral researchers. The eight successful candidates from Aachen and Jülich who hold diplomas in engineering, physics, or mathematics, have been chosen by a selection committee from a strong field of excellent nominees.