Barcelona School of Informatics to participate in the first European Master’s programme in HPC

The Barcelona School of Informatics (Universitat Politència de Catalunya) is a member of the consortium that will offer courses from autumn 2022 to provide students with outstanding career perspectives in the rapidly expanding field of HPC, High Performance Data Analytics (HPDA) or Artificial Intelligence. In particular, the students will participate at UPC in the Master in Innovation and Research in Informatics (MIRI) under the High Performance Computing specialization.

 

With a total budget of 7M €, the consortium of European universities, research/supercomputing centres and industrial partners will develop a higher education programme with the main objectives to: 

The availability of HPC experts, such as HPC administrators and architects, HPC proficient data scientists, HPC application developers, and expert users, is a key factor that drives digital transformation in Europe, and requires the training of highly skilled and talented graduate students. 

 

While many university curricula include basic computer science and programming languages, education programmes today must be adapted to a rapidly developing HPC technology ecosystem. The curriculum of the HPC pilot Master’s programme will be designed in a modular structure to facilitate a full or partial integration of the modules into new or existing Master’s programmes. 

 

A central goal of the initiative is to strengthen mobility between European universities, research centres, and industry. The new HPC-centred Master’s programme will reach out to scientific and industrial target groups and serve key actors in the private and public sector. 

 

Anders Dam Jensen, Executive Director of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, said: “Thanks to this Master’s programme, we will train the next generation of HPC experts in Europe.

EuroHPC Joint Undertaking is building a world-class supercomputer infrastructure. Ensuring the availability of a high-skilled workforce to operate, use, and further develop these machines and their applications is perhaps the most sustainable investment in HPC. I am delighted that we can start working with the University of Luxembourg, as well as this consortium of European partners, to further HPC skills in Europe.” 

 

Pascal Bouvry, Professor of Computer Science and Head of HPC Infrastructure at the University of Luxembourg said: “The consortium members are proud and excited to have been chosen to develop this pilot Master’s programme. We will now work with great commitment and energy to implement our proposal that aims to offer first courses in September 2022, and provide added value to society and to students. It is a strategic investment that will support the development of a world-class HPC ecosystem in Europe.” 

 

The consortium led by the University of Luxembourg consists of universities, research/supercomputing centres, industrial and SME partners, and additional supporting partners. 

Eight universities will initially be awarding degrees (University of Luxembourg, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Politecnico di Milano, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Sorbonne Université, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Kungliga Tekniska Hoegskolan). The list of participating universities and institutions is bound to be extended in the future. The full list of consortium members. 

 

It was selected following the call for proposals EuroHPC-2020-03 “Training and Education on HPC”. The call was launched in March 2021, as the last R&I call of the EuroHPC JU within the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework. 

 

The consortium will develop and implement one or more pilots of a European Master of Science programme for HPC. This action is part of the EuroHPC JU’s broader strategy to support the development of key HPC skills, education and training for European science and industry. 

 

The EuroHPC JU was established by Council Regulation (EU) 2018/1488 in 2018. 29 European countries are currently taking part in the initiative and pooling their resources with the EU and private partners to enable the EU to become a world leader in supercomputing.

 

The mission of the EuroHPC JU is to develop, deploy, extend and maintain an integrated world-class supercomputing and data infrastructure in the EU and to develop and support a highly competitive and innovative HPC ecosystem.

 

More information can be found on the EuroHPC JU’s website.