Basque budgets: 330m€ in science and technology projects for 2011

Approved by both Spanish and Basque Governments. Links are in Spanish.

This will have significant impact in Basque Computational projects, as for example the Basque Center for applied Mathematics will raise 6m€ just in 2011.

认识巴斯克自治区

了解为什么你的高性能计算项目，应在巴斯克地区。

下列文件已出版了地方当局。这页是一个个人博客，将帮助你找到就业机会，企业，科学，并使用高性能计算的工业项目。


认识巴斯克自治区

The art of quantum simulation enables the study of inaccessible phenomena

An interesting interview to local Ikerbasque researcher Enrique Solano, here.

The paper was published on Nature.

References: the LRZ case

The following slides -from a presentation given a few months ago- highlight perfectly what I consider a very good global HPC academic provider. It is what we should be looking at, and mimic -as we already explained, what I believe could be applied to Lemoniz abandoned nuclear power plant.

Introducing IT Service Management at the LRZ

However let me argue the real need to be supported by Industry, specially the local one. Lemoniz is extremely important in terms of Physical Security, but there is more that I will try to argue in future posts. All related posts here.

VideoGames industry education in the Basque

"The Bilbao Chamber of Comerse and DigipPen USA are honoured to present DigiPen Institute of Technology Europe-Bilbao, a project the goal of which is to boost a new strategic sector in Euskadi: Videogames and Virtual Reality. To this end, we will create high-performance training and research in videogame programming and design and which will open its doors in 2010."

Via BasqueResearch.com and Techflash.

Applications for fall 2011 now open. See their website and follow the European Hub on Facebook.

This is indeed a good reference for us. Well done!

Basque Competitiviness Performance: Why should your HPC project be in the Basque Country?

The following presentation -prepared by distinguished professor Michael E. Porter from Harvard Business School's Institute for Strategy and Competitiviness- will give provide you with some unvaluable insights. The professors used this material to give a talk in Bilbao in 2002, and describes the evolution of the Basque Region strategies and recommendations from 1988.

Basque competitive performance - Michael E. Porter

Why should your HPC project be in the Basque Country ? Space for your offices

Besides the scientific and technological parks located at the outskirts of Bilbao, San Sebastian, Vitoria and Mondragon, Bilbao is about to inaugurate the "Iberdrola Tower". Located in the center of Bilbao, you can request and find further information to start your business here.

Why should your HPC project be in the Basque Country ? Nature, Sports, Culture and Society

The following funny video, made by a person that leaves in the Basque Country, can give you a good idea about how the people and the countryside in the Basque Country area is. As his author describes his video took "21 months in the making, more than 100 places and many friends to dance in the Basque Country. Based on an idea by Matt Harding."

Why should your HPC project be in the Basque Country ? Economic Situation

In a video report published in its digital version, the WSJ describes Spain as a burden for Europe though it also says that Bilbao has "weathered" the economic situation well.
Further can be read here.

Why should your HPC project be in the Basque Country ? Science Report

The following report describes the Basque Science system. It was published in Nature in 2008 in conunction with Ikerbasque- the Basque Science Agency-.

Basque Science

Fellowships 2011 for Visiting Researchers in Computational Projects

The call is run by Ikerbasque the Basque Science Foundation: please see a description of centers, projects and conditions here.

Jobs in San Sebastian: Head of Calculation and Simulation projects

Further information and apply form in English here.

Description of offer:

This falls within the remit of the Business Unit at TECNALIA Transport (within the Department of Product Engineering), located at the INASMET-Tecnalia Technological Centre in the Donostia-San Sebastian Technological Park in the Basque Country. Remuneration is negotiable depending on personal and professional skills..

Requirements: Qualifications:

We are looking to those persons with Third Level qualifications in Engineering (Mechanical, Materials, Aeronautics or similar).

Minimum experience required:

Experience of approximately 5-10 years in the field of numerical simulation (structural, thermal, etc.) in the modelling of materials, in physical processes and phenomena in general, and in programming (Matlab, etc).

Languages:

It is essential to have fluency in English, with credit being given for a second foreign language.

Advantages:

Credit will also be given for those holding a PhD or those undertaking a doctorate in numerical simulation.

Research Opportunities in Mathematics in the Basque Country

The BCAM, the basque center for applied mathematics is seeking to hire, senior, postdoctoral and phd students in the following areas: Please apply and read here.

• Fluid
 Mechanics

• Data 
Mining


• Statistics 
and 
Applied 
Probability

• Financial
Mathematics

• Partial
 Differential 
Equations,
Numerics
and
Control
(PDE)

• Computational 
Mathematics
(CM)

• Network 
Design,
Analysis 
and 
Optimization
(NET)

• Calculus
 of
 Variations
 and
 Elasticity
(CVE)

• Mathematical
 Biology 
and
 Molecular 
Simulation
(MBMS)

• Analysis 
of 
Partial
 Differential 
Equations

• Waves
 in
 continuous
 and
 discrete 
media

• Numerical 
analysis

• Optimal
 design
 and
 control 
problems

• Applications
 in 
Aerodynamics


Modelling the behaviour of the plastic deformation of metal sheeting

Mondragon University, Fagor Arrasate and Koniker technological centre announced today an agreement for boosting research in machine tool sector.

Koniker Research is an expert on "simulations finite elements: mechanical, thermal, hydraulic, cinematic and dynamic".

Why should your HPC project be in the Basque Country ?

The Following document will provide some insights for those willing to relocate their High Performance Computing activities to the Basque Country. As you will find on the gubernamental web page, your project can benefit from key strategic areas: Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Electronics, and Alternative Energies expert know-how.

Investing in the Basque Country

Why should your Simulation or High Performance Computing project be in the Basque Country?

The following document -distributed by ESS Bilbao- is a bit old, but you may get the picture.

Quality of Life in the Basque Country

Recognition of hemi-methylated DNA by UHRF1

This excellent presentation was given by Ronen Zangi, Ikerbasque Research Professor from the University of the Basque Country, at a national scientific computing conference.

ps: here you can read en interview when he moved to live in San Sebastian-Donostia, to start this work.

Recognition of hemi-methylated DNA by UHRF1 (Ronen Zangi, Euskal Herriko Unibersitatea)

Iberdrola's Wind Simulations in seek of expert HPC engineers and consultants

That is what today, the Spanish supercomputing center's associate director said to a national radio program. He claims that his center -located in Barcelona- has an advanced engineering technology program ongoing to optimize Iberdrola's new wind farms across the Spanish geography. It is understood that such decisions need simulation and supercomputing capabilities, as it was described before in this blog. Despite Iberdrola is a major HPC industrial user, none of its activities seem to have any relevance inside the Basque Country.

The interview can be played here, in Spanish though.

On the other hand, Iberdrola's Chairman previously said that "significant volume of investment" was planned in the Basque " which represents a golden opportunity for Basque suppliers – highly specialized in the electricity sector –".

Update 19th October 2010: Iberdrola confirms. However this seems an strategy to win bid for 489 megawatts (MW) of wind power capacity in the are where the CASE centre is located.

Financial Times outlook cover Basque companies that use HPC

I am happy to mention here the positive outlook covered by Financial Times' Mark Mulligan.

Some good things:

"The green valleys and centuries­ old villages of the Basque Country seem an incongruous setting for the workshops of Spain’s industrial heartland. "

"the Basque Country more crisis­ resistant than the rest of Spain"

The article mention basque companies that we already covered -CIE, Iberdrola, AIC-, need the use of scientific computing, simulation, prediction and management to run successful businesses.

The Basque Mathematics Annual Report

The Basque Center for Applied Mathematics has recently published their annual report. With only 2 years, significant achievements, and things that sound really well:

-"BCAM has been granted an ERC Advanced Grant 2009 edition"

-"Collaboration with local partners and industry is also increasingly bringing new scientific challenges, human resurces and funding to BCAM "

-"Highly valuable people from different countries, committed to teamwork, continuous learning and the development of top-level mathematical knowledge and skills are continuously drawn to BCAM for training and research "

-"The aim of the team Partial Differential Equations, Numerics and Control is to contribute to the understanding - through modeling, mathematical analysis, and numerical simulation - of a wide range of phenomena such as the vibrations of complex mechanical structures, phase transitions in solids, shape design in aeronautics, and the dynamics of strongly nonlinear surface and internal waves in fluids "

"the development and analysis of mathematical models to predict and control the QoS (Quality of Service) of information and communication systems, including wired and wireless networks and large-scale distributed systems "

"Our objective is to study relevant physical and biological processes using mathematical modeling, analysis and computer simulation "

"agreements with the Chinese Academy os Sciences in Beijing, the University of Kyushu in Japan, the Tata Insititute in India"

"BCAM needs powerful computational resources to perform complex calculations and to generate simulations and visualizations "

"We have also acces to the cluster provided by i2basque, which features 232 processing cores "

The following video of the facilities features in the first 58 seconds an introduction to the center and an engineering forum celebrated in their building -text translated by google here-:

i2Basque manages Euskalmet's iDataPlex

Great news: i2basque advertises the availability of the -possibly- already announced Euskalmet's iDataplex 1064 cores machine. This is indeed great news: i2basque from my point of view, can provide the best academic and industrial connectivity and therefore the best integration in all terms. If the machine it is hosted at the EJIE data center, then we can clearly say that it is probably one of the most uptime-d scientific computing clusters around.

Now we are only missing a bit more of coordination in the next purchases, so we get better hardware and cheaper. Possibly if this was more orchestrated, we could also start some sort of research in this area, get hardware previews, coordinate software development and support, partnership. We got all the elements, do not get me wrong, but they do not seem so visible.

Whoever takes this responsibility for our community has a great task ahead.
i2basque seems the candidate, lets see how this evolves.