National Competence Centre for HPC at ITAPA
The 19th edition of the largest IT conference in Slovakia – ITAPA– took place on December 7 – 9, 2020. The EuroCC project and the National Competence centre for HPC was presented by Lukáš Demovič, director of the Centre of Operations of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Chairman of the Board of the National Supercumputing centre (NSCC).
In his presentation, L. Demovič introduced the scope and goals of the EuroCC project and underlined the importance of HPC in many areas, such as innovations, digitalization and transformation of industry. The National competence centre for HPC provides services for SMEs, industry, public and academic sector and enables them to utilize HPC, AI HPDA and ML tools in their business or research.
The newly founded National supercomputing centre (NSCC) was established in 2020 as a consortium of the Centre of Operations SAS, the Ministry of Investments, Regional Development and Informatization of the Slovak Republic and the I4DI organization. The NSCC is expected to cooperate closely with the NCC for HPC.
The importance and role of the basic and applied research in the transformation of industry was debated by L. Demovič during a discussion panel together with other participants, including the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of the Slovak Republic, Richard Sulík.
We are convinced that the EuroCC project will play a key role in overcoming barriers in introducing HPC/HPDA/AI solutions during the informatization and digitalization process and will increase the competence level in these areas in Slovakia significantly.
More info about the EuroCC project
Industry 4.0 discussion panel 
Lukáš Demovič about how European supercomputers promote innovation 
Industry 4.0 discussion panel 
Panel discussion: The Road to Industry 4.0: Richard Sulík (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of the Slovak Republic Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic), Peter Blaškovitš (SIEA), Lukáš Demovič (COO SAS and Chairman of the NSCC Board), Emil Fitoš (ITAS), and Eva Stejskalová (MicroStep)
BeeGFS in Practice — Parallel File Systems for HPC, AI and Data-Intensive Workloads 6 Feb - This webinar introduces BeeGFS, a leading parallel file system designed to support demanding HPC, AI, and data-intensive workloads. Experts from ThinkParQ will explain how parallel file systems work, how BeeGFS is architected, and how it is used in practice across academic, research, and industrial environments.
When a production line knows what will happen in 10 minutes 5 Feb - Every disruption on a production line creates stress. Machines stop, people wait, production slows down, and decisions must be made under pressure. In the food industry—especially in the production of filled pasta products, where the process follows a strictly sequential set of technological steps—one unexpected issue at the end of the line can bring the entire production flow to a halt. But what if the production line could warn in advance that a problem will occur in a few minutes? Or help decide, already during a shift, whether it still makes sense to plan packaging later the same day? These were exactly the questions that stood at the beginning of a research collaboration that brought together industrial data, artificial intelligence, and supercomputing power.
Who Owns AI Inside an Organisation? — Operational Responsibility 5 Feb - This webinar focuses on how organisations can define clear operational responsibility and ownership of AI systems in a proportionate and workable way. Drawing on hands-on experience in data protection, AI governance, and compliance, Petra Fernandes will explore governance approaches that work in practice for both SMEs and larger organisations. The session will highlight internal processes that help organisations stay in control of their AI systems over time, without creating unnecessary administrative burden.