Laboratory

High Performance Computing

About the Laboratory

HPC Lab offers unique solutions of complex problems like uncovering hidden characteristics, exploring unknown correlations in natural phenomena as well as predicting market trends and even estimating customer preferences using techniques like HPC (high-performance computing), AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Big Data analytics.

The HPC Lab offers reliable and sustainable (24/7) computational resources, meeting the needs of the research and academic community as well as those of the small and medium enterprise sector on a national and regional level. HPC Lab is included in the international network https://www.labsexplorer.com/, which disseminates information about the services that users receive from laboratories with verified international presence. More information HERE

Activities

Current Activities
  • Conducting research using highly scalable modeling and simulation methods with massive parallelism and data storage.
  • Conducting educational masters and doctoral courses in computer science, high performance computing, high performance computing.
  • Regular intensive training for users on a tailored-on-demand basis.
  • Collaborative research and projects in partnership with European supercomputing centres.

Services and Equipment

Services
  • Training – on request of the customer (beginners and advanced) to access the system
  • Training on specific codes developed for researchers’ needs (AbINIT, Quantum Espresso, Gromacs, Dynamic Molecular Dynamics, WRF, CP2K)
  • Training in numerical methods (Monte Carlo, Cellular Automata, Molecular Dynamics)
  • Consulting on the application of HPC+ technologies to solve business problems (production optimization; financial operations; library maintenance; operating systems)
  • Consultations to find partners in the field of HPC+ for project preparation
  • Installing custom code
  • Managing servers in a parallel cluster (queues, management systems)
  • Organisation of events and international seminars
Equipment
  • High performance parallel cluster with 768 CPUs deployed in Fujitsu Primergy RX2530 M1 servers; 128 GB system memory; 128 GB SSD hard drive; 2 x 1 Gbps Ethernet controllers; 1 x 56 Gbps FDR Infiniband controller; 1 x iRMC Ethernet controller
  • Fujitsu Primergy RX2530 M with 8 × 1 TB SAS hard drives running FreeBSD 10.3 OS with 3.94 TB total storage RAIDZ2 pool
  • The file server has two 128 GB SSDs for cache operations
  • Supermicro storage server running Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS with 13TB of total usable RAIDZ2 storage. This file server has 3.5TB SSD storage for cache operations
  • There are 4 workstations in the lab to access the computing cluster, equipped with desktop computers for monitoring and visualization. Two high-end workstations are equipped to perform tasks from creating new materials
  • The lab has a thermal camera to control the temperature of the electronics in the cluster
  • Audio-visual system for conferences and trainings
  • Software applications for quantum chemistry, meteorology, computational mathematics and physics groups are provided on the basis of contracts with the Ministry of Education, universities and private users

Scientific Publications

Related Scientific Publications
No related scientific publications found.

Management

Prof. Dr. Ana Proykova
Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski
Head of the laboratory

Scientific Areas:

Theoretical and Computational Physics, Optimization Algorithms, High Performance Computing, Nuclear Physics, Big Data Analytics

History:

Prof. Dr. Ana I. Proykova, Doctor Habil, is a Full Professor at the University of Sofia, the Head of the High Performance Computing Laboratory at the Sofia Tech Park, and the Chair of the European Strategy Working Group on Data, Computing, and Digital Infrastructures. Throughout her professional career, she has worked at universities worldwide, including Belgium, Germany, Israel, Italy, the USA, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and in the 1980s – the USSR.

She is a member of four European advisory groups (AG) for the Horizon2020 Work programme, namely on the Future and Emerging Technologies, on Science With and For Society, on Gender, and on International Cooperation. Additionally, she is a member of the Horizon2020 Program Committee on Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology, as well as a member of the Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks (SCHEER).