The Masters in High Performance Computing graduation ceremony will take place on Monday 27 February 2017 at 11.00 hours. A detailed programme of the Ceremony will be available shortly.

In conjunction with the Ceremony, a keynote lecture will be given by Prof. Nicola Marzari, on "Computational materials science enters a new age". Marzari holds a degree in physics from the University of Trieste (1992) and a PhD in physics from the University of Cambridge (1996). He was a postdoctoral fellow at Rutgers University and a research scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory and at Princeton University (1996-01). In 2001 he was appointed assistant professor of computational materials science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was promoted to associate professor in 2005 and to the Toyota Chair of Materials Engineering in 2009. In 2010 he joined the University of Oxford as its first Statutory (University) Professor of Materials Modelling and director of the Materials Modelling Laboratory. He moved to EPFL in 2011, as chair of Theory and Simulation of Materials; from 2014 he also directs the MARVEL National Centre on Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials, a 12-year project involving 39 groups. 

Abstract: The last 30 years have seen the steady and exhilarating development of powerful quantum simulation techniques, often based on density-functional theory, to understand, predict, or even design the properties of complex molecules or materials. Since these simulations are performed without any experimental input or parameter they can streamline, accelerate, or replace actual physical experiments. This is a far-reaching paradigm shift, substituting the cost- and time-scaling of brick-and-mortar facilities, equipment, and personnel with those, very different, of computing engines.

Nevertheless, computational science remains anchored to a renaissance model of individual artisans gathered in a workshop, under the guidance of an established practitioner. Great benefits could follow from rethinking such model, while adopting concepts and tools from computer
science for the automation, management, preservation, analytics, and dissemination of these computational efforts.
I will offer my perspective on the current state-of-the-art in the field, its power and limitations, the role and opportunities of high-throughput computing, and some examples that hint at the novel
approaches that are emerging.

Venue: Kastler Lecture Hall, Adriatico Guesthouse, Via Grignano 9, Trieste

The Master in High Performance Computing (MHPC) is an innovative degree program that prepares students for exciting careers in the fast-growing field of HPC. Set in the stimulating research environment of its co-organizer institutions, SISSA and ICTP, the program combines lectures with hands-on and applied projects to prepare future HPC specialists for academia and industry. For more information, see: http://www.mhpc.it/