Editorial

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are the new buzzwords one can hardly escape. But what is behind them and what impact will this technology have on our lives? The Wallenberg Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP) has recently been extended towards AI with an additional generous grant from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW). WASP will advance AI technologies and their applications, as you can see in our cover article.

This spring PDC has continued its collaboration with SeRC, the Swedish e-Science Research Centre. During the SeRC annual meeting in May this year, plans for additional multidisciplinary collaboration projects were refined further. Meanwhile the joint PDC-SeRC seminar series is showcasing the inspiring ongoing work at SeRC.

Another interdisciplinary collaboration program, the European HPC-Europa3 program (HPCE3), started successfully this spring. HPCE3 is facilitating research visits by computational scientists to KTH and the Stockholm region, and the first 14 visitors have been hosted by PDC. Check out the breadth of their research areas in this newsletter.

Writing good software is a challenge, particularly in academic settings. For some time now, we have been training people in software engineering techniques as part of the work of the Nordic e-Infrastructure Collaboration (NeIC). Enthusiastic members are now trying to form a larger network, The Nordic Research Software Engineer Initiative – check out their activities and consider joining!

A lot is happening on the European e-infrastructure front as well. PRACE is planning for the 6th phase of its implementation projects and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is shaping up through projects like the EOSC-hub.

Finally, together with researchers from the CST department at KTH, we are continuing our efforts towards Exascale computing and a couple of new projects will start in the autumn. These will contribute to the bold European vision of building European Exascale systems, an endeavour that is currently being formalized through the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, which is expected to be approved by the European Council this autumn. You will hear more about this in future editions of this newsletter.

With this, I wish you a relaxing summer - but don't forget: PDC's systems do not have a summer break. Keep them busy computing while you enjoy the beach!

Erwin Laure, Director PDC