Supercomputing
The course
The Supercomputing course of the Crazy about Science program of the Catalunya La Pedrera Foundation is a course developed by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - National Supercomputing Center (BSC) aimed at high school students with a scientific vocation interested in STEM careers (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). This course arises with the idea of introducing the multidisciplinary environment offered by supercomputing where different disciplines come together to solve all kinds of problems. The main objective of this course is to encourage scientific vocations and promote knowledge and education of excellence of young people in Catalonia.
Registrations for the Crazy about Supercomputing course will be open from September 15 to October 25, 2021 and among all those registered, 25 students of 1st baccalaureate will be selected to participate in the 4th edition of the course, within the 10th edition of the Crazy about Science program that will take place in 2022.
The course will be held on different Saturdays from January 15, 2022 to May 14, 2022 at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center facilities.
During the 15 theoretical-practical sessions (plus the closing ceremony) students will learn first-hand what supercomputers are and how they work and different types of research that can be carried out using supercomputing. They will also be introduced to frontier technologies in the world of computing, such as Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing.
To participate in this course it is necessary for students to bring a laptop to the sessions.
The course will cover the following areas:
- Introduction to Supercomputing
- Mathematics for supercomputing
- Simulations
- Artificial Intelligence
- Climate change study
- Quantum computing
- Computational biology
- Blockchain
- Sustainable cities
Specific objectives of the course
Around academic studies
- To encourage among young people scientific vocations linked to supercomputing in particular and computer science in general, as an object of study and as a tool for research.
- To offer the opportunity to have their baccalaureate research work authorized by a reference research center.
Research environment
- To make students aware of the importance of supercomputing in different areas of research: supercomputing is the third pillar of science and engineering.
- To learn about the operation of research centers linked to supercomputing.
- To value multidisciplinarity and technology as necessary elements for the progress of knowledge.
Supercomputing environment
- To learn that supercomputing is a necessary tool in different scientific disciplines.
- To understand the difference between basic research and applied research in supercomputing.
Sessions 2022
Session 1. What is a supercomputer?
Day: Saturday, January 15, 2022
Time: 9.30h to 14h
Place: Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Calle de Jordi Girona, 31
Session coordination: Sara Ibáñez
Session by: Sergi Girona
Language: Catalan
Session 2. Parallelism
Day: Saturday, January 22nd
Time: 9.30h to 14h
Place: Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Calle de Jordi Girona, 31
Session coordination: Sara Ibáñez
Language: Catalan
Session 4. Why do airplanes fly and cars don't?
Day: Saturday, February 5th
Time: 9.30h to 14h
Place: Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Calle de Jordi Girona, 31
Session coordination: Sara Ibáñez
Language: Catalan / Spanish
Session 5. Simulating the Earth
Day: Saturday, February 12
Time: 9.30h to 14h
Place: Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Calle de Jordi Girona, 31
Session coordination: Sara Ibáñez
Language: Catalan
Session 6. Data infrastructure
Day: Saturday, February 19th
Time: 9.30h to 14h
Place: Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Calle de Jordi Girona, 31
Session coordination: Sara Ibáñez
Language: Catalan
Session 7. Introduction to artificial intelligence
Day: Saturday, February 20
Time: 9.30h to 14h
Place: Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Calle de Jordi Girona, 31
Session coordination: Sara Ibáñez
Language: Catalan
Session 8. Neural Networks
Day: Saturday, March 5th
Time: 9.30h to 14h
Place: Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Calle de Jordi Girona, 31
Session coordination: Sara Ibáñez
Language: Catalan
Session 9. Climatologist's word
Day: Saturday, March 12
Time: 9.30h to 14h
Place: Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Calle de Jordi Girona, 31
Session coordination: Sara Ibáñez
Language: Catalan
Session 10. Get closer to Quantum Computing
Day: Saturday, March 19th
Time: 9.30h to 14h
Place: Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Calle de Jordi Girona, 31
Session coordination: Sara Ibáñez
Language: Spanish
Session 11. Introduction to genomics
Day: Saturday, March 26th
Time: 9.30h to 14h
Place: Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Calle de Jordi Girona, 31
Session coordination: Sara Ibáñez
Language: Catalan / Spanish
Session 12. Proteins and drug design
Day: Saturday, April 2nd
Time: 9.30h to 14h
Place: Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Calle de Jordi Girona, 31
Session coordination: Sara Ibáñez
Session 13. Introduction to Blockchain
Day: Saturday, April 9th
Time: 9.30h to 14h
Place: Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Calle de Jordi Girona, 31
Session coordination: Sara Ibáñez
Language: Catalan
Session 14. Sustainable mobility (I)
Day: Saturday, April 23rd
Time: 9.30h to 14h
Place: Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Calle de Jordi Girona, 31
Session coordination: Sara Ibáñez
Language: Catalan / Spanish
Session 15. Sustainable Mobility (II)
Day: Saturday, May 7th
Time: 9.30h to 14h
Place: Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Calle de Jordi Girona, 31
Session coordination: Sara Ibáñez
Language: Catalan / Spanish
Session 16. Conclusion
Day: Saturday, May 14
Time: TBC
Place: Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Calle de Jordi Girona, 3
Collaborating entities
The Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC) is the national supercomputing centre in Spain. As a research centre, we participate in more than 400 research projects and as a scientific facility we serve the scientific community and the international industry.
With more than 500 R&D experts and professionals from all over the world, BSC is a centre that attracts talent.
Our research focuses on four fields: Computational Sciences, Life Sciences, Earth Sciences and Computer Applications in Science and Engineering.
The BSC Consortium is formed by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of the Government of Spain (60%), the Department of Business and Knowledge of the Generalitat de Catalunya (30%) and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (10%).
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