Supporting research communities with large-scale DFT in the next decade and beyond

Lead Research Organisation: University of Warwick
Department Name: Physics

Abstract

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description ONETEP Masterclass 2023
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact Increased uptake and confident use of the EPSRC-supported ONETEP code across different UK and international (e.g. EU, Africa) simulation-based projects.
URL https://onetep.org/news/onetep-masterclass-2023/
 
Description ONETEP Rutherford Appleton Laboratory training 2023
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact Increased uptake of the ONETEP code across STFC facilities and ensuing use in different follow-up research activities funded by STFC (e.g. STFC's Ada Lovelace Centre)
URL https://onetep.org/news/onetep-training-at-ral-on-13-1-2023/
 
Title Improvements to Spectral Function Unfolding Code in ONETEP LS-DFT package 
Description As part of work in this project, we dramatically improved the capabilities of ONETEP in terms of simulated ARPES spectroscopy. The routines for Spectral Function Unfolding were re-written and accelerated many-fold (frequently over 10x faster). This has made them usable in new ways such as for taking constant energy maps across the whole Brillouin zone. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Further papers using SFU by other groups (eg O'Regan group) 
URL http://www.onetep.org
 
Title ONETEP within Materials Studio 2024 
Description An updated version of ONETEP within Dassault Systemes BIOVIA's Materials Studio 2024 release. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact Through this release the most recent developments in ONETEP have been made available to the many industrial customers of Dassault Systemes BIOVIA. It is also worth noting that ONETEP is also available to academics free of charge. 
URL https://www.3ds.com/assets/invest/2024-02/whatsnew-biovia-materials-studio-2024.pdf
 
Title onetep 
Description onetep is linear scaling density functional theory code. under a commercial license free to use for academics 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact modernise the building system, moving to CMake a cross os building system. adding testing infrastructure and automatic documentation generation. 
URL https://onetep.org/
 
Description CoSeC Conference 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Explore CoSeC, the communities it supports, the people who, together comprise 'CoSeC' and the wide range of technical, computational expertise and support they provide
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.scd.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/CoSeC-Conference-2023.aspx
 
Description Electronic Structure Software Development: Advancing the Modular Paradigm 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Shared computational libraries that provide key functionality are now firmly established parts of the electronic structure software ecosystem (examples [1-8] include libxc, ELPA, Wannier90, spglib, the ELSI infrastructure with several solvers, NTPoly, DFTB+, which can be used as a library, other libraries found in the CECAM Electronic Structure Library, and many others). As electronic structure methods and codes diversify and mature, the development of libraries strengthens collaborations and avoids reimplementing (sometimes reinventing) the same methods in the context of a different, monolithic code. Over the years, a modular paradigm has emerged in which central pieces can be shared and reused between different projects.

Many efforts carried out so far have focused on making this paradigm successful and sustainable, by building robust software components with stable interfaces, offering the best possible performance on a broad range of hardware architectures, and sharing development practices between developers with sometimes very different backgrounds. Among the most important ongoing challenges are (1) training and educating new developers to take advantage of existing developments where that is appropriate and (2) continuously evolving library software to be useful, current, and usable by end users in often complex environments like HPC systems.

The scientific reach of electronic structure theory continues to expand rapidly, including by generalisation of high-throughput calculations, creation of complex workflows, and rapid growth of data-driven methods and machine learning. All these developments now attract participants beyond academia. On the computational side, the involvement of industrial partners - e.g. NVidia, Intel, NEC, AMD - is growing steadily, bringing feedback and insights from engineers. Globally, several key collaborative efforts develop shared software, including the MaX and NOMAD Centers of Excellence (CoE), the UK ExCALIBUR exascale project (https://excalibur.ac.uk/), the Swiss THEOS and MARVEL projects, the U.S. based Molecular Sciences Software Institute, DoE's Exascale initiative, or DoE funded centers such as MiCCOM (http://miccom-center.org/). Connections with other communities, like quantum chemistry, are getting stronger because of shared needs, as illustrated by the TREX CoE (https://trex-coe.eu/). The Swiss Scientific Computing Center (CSCS), the U.K.'s Daresbury Laboratory, and many other individual institutions likewise act as lighthouses for shared developments within the broad electronic structure software ecosystem.

The CECAM Electronic Structure Library (ESL) initiative (https://esl.cecam.org) is a key venue that connects developers from electronic structure codes across the community (contributors represent, e.g., Siesta, BigDFT, DFTB+, Quantum Espresso, Octopus, FHI-aims, and several others). It provides a space for coordination between developers, new library developments and enhancements of existing libraries, as well as interaction with the broader ecosystem of library developments for electronic structure theory. Especially through its workshops, the ESL also acts as a venue that brings together developers across the many broader centers and collaborative efforts (see above) providing a common ground to exchange information and coordinate developments.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.cecam.org/workshop-details/electronic-structure-software-development-advancing-the-modul...
 
Description ONETEP Masterclass (22-24/08/2023) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The aim of the ONETEP Masterclass was to train participants to apply the ONETEP code on their own specific problems of interest. Each participant was allocated 1 or 2 tutors to help them set up and run calculations on their particular systems. Introductory lectures and lectures on some of the functionalities of the code were also delivered. The target audiences for this training workshop were new users from academia, industry, and STFC and EPSRC facilities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://onetep.org/news/onetep-masterclass-2023/