There are currently seven Visualization Centers, whose mission is to reinforce support for Advanced Computing users in accessing High Performance Computing (HPC), High Throughput Computing (HTC) and Cloud resources.
The Visualization Centers were designed to create better conditions for research in a wide range of areas, using state-of-the-art software and hardware. This collaborative network between Visualization and Competency Centers It also aims to bring industries closer and strengthen existing relationships. Meet some of them.
Visualization Center of the University of Lisbon, at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST)
“The Visualization Center is a unique resource not only for showcasing new products and solutions in all sectors of Science, Engineering and Architecture, but also as a tool for collaborative work in Computational Science and Engineering and in all areas where data and its exploration with tools associated with Advanced Computing are critical.”
– Luís Oliveira e Silva, full professor in the physics department at IST
The resources
The Visualization Center is installed in a dedicated room with the following equipment: Videowall with 12 monitors in a 4×3 configuration of 55″ (4.87mx 2.06m) with thin bezel, 12 NUC i7, 16GB ram, 512GB, Graphics Workstation; Two professional 60″ UHD monitors; Videoconferencing infrastructure (Two high-resolution PTZ cameras; Two self-amplified studio monitors; Table microphone (boundary) and also network infrastructure with connectivity to 10Gbit/s RCTS and wireless infrastructure.
The Visualization Center also serves as a meeting point/focus for the scientific community associated with High Performance Computing in IST thus enhancing the community's impact.
The areas in which they have been used
The Visualization Center has supported the training activities of EuroCC MSc Fellows, from IST, who develop work in the areas of Computer Engineering, Quantum Computing, Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical/Biological Engineering, Physics, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering.
In addition to this support, it has been used for scientific work by research teams in Mechanical Engineering, Computational Fluid Mechanics and Physics.
Some results already obtained
In addition to the training component, research groups operating at the Visualization Center have used the available resources to explore scenarios relevant to simulations of complex fluids and plasma physics/nuclear fusion.
The main challenges they still face
The Visualization Center is in the final stages of testing and progressively opening to the IST and ULisboa communities, and is expected to be fully operational soon (the technical infrastructure is complete, with only minor details, access, and logistical support remaining). We anticipate that once the entire infrastructure is properly tested and installed, it will be in intensive use at IST and ULisboa.
Joel Guerreiro (University of Algarve) and Thales Silva (Higher Technical Institute)
Visualization Center of the University of Algarve (UAlg)
"Innovation and technology discovery with processing and visualization capabilities, as well as technology transfer to the community, are the center's main contributions."
– Joel Guerreiro, full professor and director of IT services at UAlg
The resources
The services are: Processing Visualization, Virtual Reality Visualization, Processing and Storage.
The Processing Visualization service has at its disposal an 86″ monitor with 4K Resolution and an i9 PC, 64Gb RAM with an NVIDIA Geforce RTX 2080 discrete graphics card.
The Virtual Reality Service uses the same PC and virtual reality glasses, for storage we have a NAS with 4TB of capacity and for processing, as already mentioned, a server with 22 Processor Cores, 512GB of RAM and an NVIDIA Tesla M10 GPU graphics card.
The areas in which they have been used
The UAlg center operates in different areas, namely DNA sequencing, constrained networks, Cloud processing of constrained networks and support for Artificial Intelligence and Distributed Processing UC.
Some results already obtained
Two successfully completed doctorates benefited from the technology provided, the processing and visualization capacity of the Visualization Center of UAlg.
A first PhD that implemented resource optimization algorithms for sensors registered in a cloud environment (Se-aaS) and a second in resource optimization in federated sensor networks using RELOAD/CoAP protocols.
The main challenges they still face
For now, there's insufficient internal processing capacity to meet the demands. The display space is just one monitor.
