Birlinghoven Castle, Great Hall

High performance computing has had both stable user communities and corresponding applications for decades. The application of machine learning and deep learning methods in the field of artificial intelligence has gained momentum in recent years after a long history of changing focuses, technologies and relevance of AI. In the public debate and political narrative, HPC and AI are currently seen as crucial to finding solutions to pressing problems such as climate change, a number of incurable diseases such as Alzheimer’s or cancer, or solutions to changing mobility requirements, e.g. all kinds of automated driving.

Last year, the European Commission announced plans to fund research and development in high-performance computing and artificial intelligence to advance, strengthen and sustain Europe’s digital single market. The European Commission’s proposal for a digital Europe from June 2018 provides – in addition to the project-oriented funding of Horizon Europe – a budget of 2.7 billion euros for supercomputing and 2.5 billion euros for artificial intelligence.

The aim of the symposium is to give an insight into the current European research and development in the field of HPC and AI by presenting examples of ongoing work from various research institutions: Society for Scientific Data Processing Göttingen (GWDG), Jülich Supercomputing Center (JSC), Leibniz- Computing Center (LRZ) of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS), Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission Ispra and Seville, Dublin City University, Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems (IAIS), Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI. What benefits could come from merging HPC and AI?

Christian Kirchsteiger from DG CNECT-C1 will present the “Planet Earth Initiative”, a European Commission activity launched in 2018: Open and interoperable data is at the heart of data-driven innovation. This data, combined with digital infrastructure (e.g. supercomputers, cloud, ultra-fast networks) and artificial intelligence solutions, facilitate evidence-based decisions and expand the ability to understand and manage environmental problems. As part of the European Commission’s European Green Deal, the Commission’s initiative will bring together European leaders from academia and industry to develop a highly accurate digital model of the Earth.

In addition, the symposium will provide information on HPC and AI funding opportunities in the remaining Horizon 2020 program and on the expected upcoming framework program Horizon Europe, presented by Verena Fennemann from Fraunhofer EU Brussels Office.

I am organizing this symposium on the occasion of my expiring contract with Fraunhofer and invite a number of valued companions and colleagues from the last two decades to make a contribution.