The UT Austin Portugal Program organized a four-day immersive training experience, provided by the Texas Advanced Computing Center, for the Portuguese scientific community.
Hosted at the facilities of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, between June 11 and June 14, the Immersive Training in Scientific Visualization was a first-time opportunity for Portuguese students, researchers and faculty from over 10 different Portuguese institutions, to interact with some of TACC’s leading experts in Data and Scientific Visualization.
The Immersive Training in Scientific Visualization was part of the TACC Institute Series, which offers attendees intensive immersive training in advanced computation, with topics ranging from developing parallel applications for modern high performance computers to visualizing and analyzing large data sets, administering leadership-class advanced computing systems, executing reproducible experiments in the cloud, and purchasing and operating considerations for organizations wanting to add advanced computing resources to their R&D portfolio. The UT Austin Portugal Program organized this training to, which took place in Portugal for a selected number of registered participants, which resulted in a very successful first-time experience.
For four days, participants were instructed on the latest tools, topics, and trends in advanced computing and had the opportunity to learn how to generate visualizations for simulations results and data analyses, with programs such as Vislt and Paraview, through the guidance of TACC’s area leader Paul Navrátiland remote monitors and researchers Gregory Abram, Anne Bowen. João Barbosa, Research Associate at TACC’s Scalable Visualization Group, was the monitor on the site.
This immersive training explored topics such as Vis Landscape (Data/Sci/Info), Color Theory, Parallel Visualization/ Remote Collab Vis, amongst other hands-on tutorials and guided exercises on Sci Vis wih Paraview Basic Tutotials and Uniy, whilst introducing the participants to TACC’s computer technologies.
In the last day of training, Nuno Feixa Rodrigues, member of FCT’s Board of Directors, presented the National Strategy for Advanced Computing to the attendees, within the scope of the Portugal InCoDe.2030 program. “Data is the current currency”, he stated, underlying the importance of data analyses and the strategic value of Advanced Computing, applied to a vast number of scientific areas, consequently transforming knowledge into value such as prediction of severe weather, personalized medicine, brain function understanding, advances in material sciences, among others. The main goal of this National Strategy is to promote Portugal as a living lab and a key provider of Advanced Computing software and services, as well as a reference in the training of talented, qualified people, in the hopes of creating “an environment where knowledge and talent materialize into added-valued solutions”, he concluded.
The event was hosted by faculty member Ariel Guerreiro, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, and former participant of the Advanced Computing Training Program (ACTP). Between February and May of 2019, Ariel Guerreiro participated in the ACTP, at TACC. It was his time at UT Austin and the networking opportunities that facilitated this cross-training experience, which showcases a successful case of synergies brought together within the scope of the UT Austin Portugal Program.
See the photo gallery bellow.
