On February, 7 on the eve of the Russian Science Day a presentation of the development program of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Supercomputing was held in MEPhI Pre-university.
According to MEPhI Pro-rector Elena Vesna, information technologies becomes upfront in all fields of science, and technology of supercomputing should be taught already at school. As E.B.Vesna noted, "today it is important to prepare not advanced users of computer equipment, but specialists who are able to solve complex interdisciplinary problems using the most advanced information technologies. It is very important that students have access to a supercomputer, which is itself a model of high academic achievement, a modern tool, built on entirely new principles."
The Director General of the Company “Immers” L.V. Klyuyev stressed that the supercomputer has the most innovative cooling technology, where all the computing nodes "float" in a special liquid. This allows to achieve high computational power at relatively small sizes. In addition, the supercomputer at the lyceum is connected to a computing cluster of the University that offers students the opportunity to use up to 1024 GB of RAM with a capacity of 18 teraflops (18 trillion calculations per second). One of the main advantages of the system are the low power consumption in comparison with others and "extremely comfortable noise level". According to the representative of the supplier, the specifications and capabilities of the system allow students to gain knowledge on the basics of the theory and methods of parallel programming in relation to the specifics of MEPhI.
Leading MEPhI scientists made speeches for schoolchildren, showing practical examples that supercomputers have become an indispensable tool in modern scientific research. Breakthrough results in the field of fundamental physics, nanotechnology, bioengineering and other fields have been made possible only through the use of supercomputers. The center will allow students to connect to a data exchange network largest experimental facilities class "Mega-Sscience", to participate in the scientific research conducted in MEPhI research laboratories, to form project teams of pupils and implement network projects.
The event was attended by representatives of the Department of Education in Moscow - the Head of department on cooperation with universities E.I. Noskov, Head of the implementation of the state policy Sukhov S.V. and members of the Municipal Methodological Center, who discussed with the leadership of MEPhI Pre-niversity the organization of the project work for students of Moscow with the Interdisciplinary Center of supercomputing capabilities. The Center organized the work of the School for scientific research for students of educational institutions of Moscow "Supercomputer in modern scientific research", as well as a teacher advanced training program, which will be conducted by the leading experts in the field of supercomputing.
