Welcome to EuroCC Belgium!
WHO ARE WE?
EuroCC Belgium is the National Competence Centre (NCC) in the area of high-performance computing (HPC) and high-performance data analytics (HPDA).
EuroCC Belgium coordinates activities in all HPC-related fields at a national level and serves as a reference contact point on HPC/HPDA/AI at a national level and for customers from industry, science, (future) HPC experts, and the general public alike.
Mission
The tasks of EuroCC Belgium are diverse including (but not limited to):
- Set-up communication and dissemination actions
- Offer a formal framework between HPC-related activities
- Develop and display a comprehensive and transparent map of HPC competences and institutions
- Act as a gateway for industry and academia to providers with suitable expertise or relevant projects, may that be national or international
- Collect HPC training offers and display them on a central place together with international training offers collected by other NCC’s
- Foster the industrial uptake of HPC
- Facilitate access to systems, scientific and technical expertise and knowledge pools
WHAT IS HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING?
High-performance computing (HPC) is typically defined as "using computing power that is vastly larger than available in a typical desktop computer".
Utilizing high-performance computing requires both the hardware, i.e., supercomputer, as well as software, i.e., the tools for programming HPC applications and using the supercomputer.*
*© by CSC – source Edukamu course. ‘Elements of Supercomputing’ https://edukamu.fi/elements-of-supercomputing
WHAT IS A SUPERCOMPUTER?
©PRACE: https://prace-ri.eu/
WHY DO WE NEED SUPERCOMPUTING?
Because a supercomputer operates remarkably faster than a conventional computer, supercomputing can help to solve extraordinarily
complex problems in science and industry. There are used in a multitude of application areas:
- Environment
- User story IRCEL: learn how the VSC HPC infrastructure is essential for the reporting of air quality for the whole of Belgium
- User story VITO: learn how HPC infrastructure helped to provide the calculations for the high-resolution air quality modelling for the Environmental Imact Assessment Report in the context of the Oosterweelverbinding.
- Health care
- User story of Manon Mirgaux (University of Namur): discover how HPC contributes to the design of new drugs in the treatment of cancer.
- User story of Manon Mirgaux (University of Namur): discover how HPC contributes to the design of new drugs in the treatment of cancer.
- Weather forecasting
- Space
- ...
High-performance computing resources and knowledge are a hugely important asset for any modern society providing a competitive advantage for research and industry.
*© by CSC – source Edukamu course. ‘Elements of Supercomputing’ https://edukamu.fi/elements-of-supercomputing
PROJECT EUROCC
EuroCC Belgium is set up in the scope of the EU- and BMBF-funded EuroCC project, which brings together over 30 partners from Europe. The aim is to bring the participating European countries to a common high level in the fields of high-performance computing (HPC), high-performance data analytics (HPDA) and artificial intelligence (AI).
To this end, the EuroCC project will establish national competence centres (NCC) in the participating countries, which will be responsible for mapping the HPC, HPDA and AI activities of the individual countries.
For Belgium the National Competence Centre is called EuroCC Belgium.
Making HPC available to different users – from science, industry, public administration, and society – is a driving force behind this activity, which was funded under EuroHPC Joint Undertaking call in Horizon2020.
With the overall objective of EuroCC is to create a Europe with the Coordination and Support Action (CSA) CASTIEL to link the national centres throughout Europe and fill existing gaps, there is a clear vision:
offering a broad portfolio of services in all HPC-related areas, tailored to the needs of industry, science, and public administrations.
EuroCC works closely with the Coordination and Support Action (CSA) CASTIEL to link the national centres throughout Europe and to ensure successful collaboration between the participating countries.
Discover the EuroCC project and CASTIEL in this interview with project coordinator Bastian Koller.
The EuroCC project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 951740.
Image
EuroCC Belgium is a consortium consisting of the following partners:
