High Performance Computing Chair is launched at UÉ
The University of Évora (UÉ) inaugurated on November 1st, the High Performance Computing (HPC) Chair, sponsored by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The inauguration ceremony of this new UÉ infrastructure took place at Colégio do Espírito Santo in the presence of Manuel Heitor, Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, the Dean of UÉ, Ana Costa Freitas, Paulo Quaresma, member of the Board of Directors of FCT and representatives of several national and international companies.
Manuel Heitor, underlined in the session the importance of advanced computing in a national strategy, where this "Chair shows well the relevance of the subject and the relevance of the University of Évora in the national scenario." In the opinion of the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, "we are facing unique challenges for which we must all work" since "companies need universities, universities need companies, people need universities and companies to guarantee an update of knowledge throughout life", adding that the relationship between companies and universities "also needs codes of ethics and valorization because we want universities to be increasingly better but more different from companies and vice versa"
"Today while we celebrate our history and our experience, we demonstrate that we accompany the evolution towards the digital transition, with the launch of this Chair" thus highlighted Ana Costa Freiras, Dean of the University of Évora, considering the Chair "an example of the University's connection to society, to business, and ultimately to the global and innovative world we are going through. For the Dean "the goal is to create an ecosystem of technological innovation for the development of this region" and for that the funding for science in higher education is important "or the country will not be able to grow in a sustainable way.
Paulo Quaresma, representing the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), emphasized that the launch of this new chair is in line with FCT's scientific policy, which will allow researchers and companies "to have access to high performance resources in order to respond to increasingly complex problems, where the large-scale use of computational resources are essential.
Presented and led by Miguel Avillez, coordinator of the High Performance Computing Center - University of Évora (HPC-UÉ), of the Computational Astrophysics Group of this University and researcher at the Technical University of Berlin, the High Performance Computing Chair involves public entities and national and international companies such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise (sponsor of the Chair), DECSIS Sistemas de Informação, S.A., Assimagra - Recursos Minerais de Portugal, ANIET - Associação Nacional da Indústria Extractiva e Transformadora, ACPMR - Associação Cluster Portugal Mineral Resources, Geosense, GEOteKnics, Entidade Regional de Turismo do Alentejo, Colab KiTP - Knowledge to Innovate Professions in Tourism, 3D Business Hub, FastCompChem, Health Tech Lisboa, Starkdata, among others.
