ExCALIBUR-HEP
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
We propose to establish a design and development working group (DDWG) to cover exascale science topics in experimental high energy physics (HEP). The HEP computing usage is currently at the preExascale stage and the participation to ExCALIBUR will enable exchange of ideas and good practice with other Sciences at a similar scale to ours. This proposal is put forward by the UK HEP community and aims to foster collaboration with colleagues from other communities. During the first phase of ExCALIBUR the HEP DDWG will provide demonstrators of exascale algorithms and data management infrastructure for the benefit of HEP and beyond. These activities follow the ExCALIBUR four pillars approach and are chosen to provide high research impact in areas of UK leadership evolving towards exascale science in the 2020s.
Attachments with full details:
- Case for Support
- Justification of Resources
- Track Record
- Workplan
- Pathways to Impact
Project partners:
- StackHPC (letter attached)
- Maxeller (letter attached)
Support letters:
- Joint letter from Worldwide LHC Computing Grid, Hep Software Foundation, IRIS-HEP (international support)
- Letter from the Alan Turing Institute
Attachments with full details:
- Case for Support
- Justification of Resources
- Track Record
- Workplan
- Pathways to Impact
Project partners:
- StackHPC (letter attached)
- Maxeller (letter attached)
Support letters:
- Joint letter from Worldwide LHC Computing Grid, Hep Software Foundation, IRIS-HEP (international support)
- Letter from the Alan Turing Institute
Planned Impact
The main goal of the ExCALIBUR programme is to nurture collaboration between different sciences and share knowledge and good practice. We will fully engage with the ExCALIBUR process, towards the development of common areas of interest leading to the work plan for the second phase of ExCALIBUR truly establishing an Exascale software community in the UK.
We will further develop our collaboration with our industrial partners StackHPC and Maxeler and establish new collaboration with other industrial partners that participate to ExCALIBUR. During the first phase, we will explore a collaboration with the Intel centre of excellence in Cambridge: the Geant4 work that we propose has the potential to be one of the scientific use cases of the centre.
We will engage with the Alan Turing Institute in particular with the Data Science for Science and Data Science at Scale programmes that are aligned with the goals of our proposed working group.
Internationally, we will build on our collaboration with the HEP Software Foundation, the Worldwide LHC Computing and Grid and the IRIS-HEP project in the USA. Several of the proponents have leading roles in these organisations and ExCALIBUR will increase our impact in the international environment.
We will offer placement for students to get involved in our activities and provide opportunities for postdocs and early career researchers to engage with this working group and ExCALIBUR as a whole. Further placements will be offered by our industrial project partners. We will naturally link with the CDTs in Data Science and AI, and it is only the short timescale of this call that has prevented us from already achieving this.
(Please refer to the Pathways to Impact attachment for full statement)
We will further develop our collaboration with our industrial partners StackHPC and Maxeler and establish new collaboration with other industrial partners that participate to ExCALIBUR. During the first phase, we will explore a collaboration with the Intel centre of excellence in Cambridge: the Geant4 work that we propose has the potential to be one of the scientific use cases of the centre.
We will engage with the Alan Turing Institute in particular with the Data Science for Science and Data Science at Scale programmes that are aligned with the goals of our proposed working group.
Internationally, we will build on our collaboration with the HEP Software Foundation, the Worldwide LHC Computing and Grid and the IRIS-HEP project in the USA. Several of the proponents have leading roles in these organisations and ExCALIBUR will increase our impact in the international environment.
We will offer placement for students to get involved in our activities and provide opportunities for postdocs and early career researchers to engage with this working group and ExCALIBUR as a whole. Further placements will be offered by our industrial project partners. We will naturally link with the CDTs in Data Science and AI, and it is only the short timescale of this call that has prevented us from already achieving this.
(Please refer to the Pathways to Impact attachment for full statement)
Publications
Aad G
(2022)
Performance of the ATLAS Level-1 topological trigger in Run 2
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2022)
The ATLAS inner detector trigger performance in pp collisions at 13 TeV during LHC Run 2
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2022)
Emulating the impact of additional proton-proton interactions in the ATLAS simulation by presampling sets of inelastic Monte Carlo events
in Computing and Software for Big Science
Aad G
(2022)
AtlFast3: The Next Generation of Fast Simulation in ATLAS
in Computing and Software for Big Science
| Description | This is a grant to investigate software for large scale computing systems (HPCs). The award is investigating data transfer and simulation strategy for particle physics and is currently ongoing. Collaborations with CERN and Oak Ridge established |
| Exploitation Route | This is important towards the development of the computing model of the LHC and other experiments in particle physics. A community within HEP was established as a result of this grant and work is ongoing for the preparation of the next phase of the LHC |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| Description | Modern research requires highly skilled research software engineer who can develop and deploy the software needed to control the instrumentation used and to analyse the data that is produced. Furthermore the building of digital twins of the experimental setup is central to the advancement of scientific knowledge. This grant contributed to the software development in particle physics and helped establish a software community in the UK as a point of reference to the international community. Additional contributiosn include: Interactions with Intel on the use of FPGA. Interaction with NVidia on the use of their GPUs A school on C++ and high level programming in particle physics A document on knowledge integration for research software engineers, published jointly by the excalibur PIs to lay the foundation of the need of research software engineering to advance scientific knowledge |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Economic |
| Description | SoftWare InFrastructure and Technology for High Energy Physics experiments (2020) at the University of Sheffield |
| Amount | £53,832 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/V005987/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2020 |
| End | 03/2021 |
| Description | SoftWare InFrastructure and Technology for High Energy Physics experiments (SWIFT-HEP) |
| Amount | £66,984 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/V002562/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2021 |
| End | 03/2024 |
| Description | Theoretical and Experimental Particle Physics at the Exascale Frontier |
| Amount | £148,416 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/X017168/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2022 |
| End | 11/2024 |