Editorial

By Stephan Hachinger, Science and Co-design Coordinator of EXA4MIND

Dear Reader! We welcome you to the 6th EXA4MIND Newsletter, the first after our interim review. In 22 months of this thriving project, we have developed extreme data analytics workflows involving supercomputing power, optimised data backends in an Extreme Data Database (EDD), and an Advanced Query and Indexing System (AQIS).

With maturing architecture and platform components, the Application Cases have shown us what is possible with technology for massive data analytics. For example, an Automated Data Mining System for Systematic Improvement in Molecular Simulations (ADMS4SIMS) enables collaborative analysis for unprecedented improvements in molecular dynamics. Supercomputing power and enhanced data backends enable methods for image segmentation and annotation, making automated driving assistance systems more efficient, and reliability is improved by advanced failure detection. Soil moisture prediction for smart farming can be realised by AI, inferring the moisture from recent weather data and satellite imagery. Last but not least, flexible tools have been developed for the analysis of public health data, helping to construct sustainable healthcare systems.

All these Application Cases were presented at the review, together with the platform concept and the realisation of the first version of flexibly-deployable modules of the EXA4MIND platform, which will be made available open-source and can be instantiated by anyone on different target systems to build big and extreme data analytics workflows. The technology behind these modules, from data backends over workflow control, to indexing, streaming and caching tools, are the essence of what our Application Cases require in every day practice. We are proud that our work, up to now, satisfied the reviewers who encouraged us to generalise our techniques further during the second half of the project - a path which we will pursue and had already foreseen in our project planning. In this Newsletter we have selected a few other highlights from our current activities to share with you. We hope that reading about them below will spark some inspiration for you! Enjoy!

The DataNexus cluster conquers EBDVF 2024

The European Big Data Value Forum (EBDVF) 2024 took place from 2 to 4 October in Budapest, Hungary. The three-day conference, organised by the BDVA - Big Data Value Association , in collaboration with AI&AUT EXPO, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Ideal-ist, Neumann Technology Platform and the Institute for Computer Science and Control (SZTAKI), brought together industry professionals, business developers, researchers and policy-makers from all over Europe and other regions of the world to advance policy actions and industrial and research activities in the areas of Data and AI. Following the success of the 2023 edition, EXA4MIND returned to EBDVF, this time as part of the DataNexus cluster.

Under the theme “Europe for global leadership in AI & Data”, the EBDVF 2024 featured 43 workshops, sessions and plenaries bringing together 180 speakers. The DataNexus cluster contributed to these impressive numbers with a 90 minutes session entitled “Innovative Approaches to Extreme Data Challenges”. 

This session and the cluster played an essential role during EBDVF in addressing a topic still uncharted, even to the big data and AI community: extreme data and its challenges. “The DataNexus is a very interesting combination of projects working on addressing challenges on extreme data. I think this will give us a very nice result, bringing the whole community together around extreme data. We expect a lot from this cluster,” stated Savvas Rogotis, Data Ecosystem Senior Project Manager at BDVA, and the moderator of the session.

The session consisted of two parts in order to achieve an understanding of how each of the six projects combines innovative technologies and tools for data mining, analysis and visualisation to create robust frameworks that can tackle Extreme Data challenges. First, there was a round of presentations entitled “New technologies for handling and exploiting extreme data and extreme data use cases”. Here, each project representative explained to the audience gathered in the room how their project addresses the challenges of extreme data and what makes their project unique. Finally, there was a panel discussion followed by a round of Q&A moderated by Savvas Rogotis.

In the case of EXA4MIND, Stephan Hachinger from Leibniz Supercomputing Centre and scientific and co-design coordinator of EXA4MIND, participated in the round of presentations. He showcased EX4MIND’s platform for Extreme Data analytics at supercomputing centres with automated data management and support for integration by design with European data ecosystems.

After the session, Stephan underlined the importance of this cluster not only for the external public but also for the people involved in each project: “On the one hand, we have many use cases in the different projects, and these use cases can be mapped to the technologies in all our projects to generalise our technologies and make them as broad as possible. On the other hand with the IT methods that we apply, we have a wealth of complementary offerings that sometimes overlap with other methods. So we can analyse what is best for the customers and their extreme data, and then condense a common portfolio of technologies”.

The other speakers were Pedro García from University Rovira i Virgili representing NEARDATA, Yannis Theodoris from University of Piraeus representing EMERALDS, Radu Prodan from Institute of Information Technology, University of Klagenfurt representing Graph-Massivizer, Xinxin Wang from Wageningen Food Safety Research representing EFRA, and Doaa Almhaithawi from Mathema representing EXTRACT.

EXA4MIND presented at the ELIXIR CZ Annual Conference 2024

The ninth ELIXIR CZ annual conference, which focused on data management topics, took place from 9 to 11 October 2024. Data management is becoming an increasingly vital part of modern research, and the ELIXIR CZ Annual conference helped to navigate it with ease. Over three days, more than 20 experts guided all attendees through the world of data management from its role in European Union projects to its impact on everyday scientific work. The present participants discovered the tools that simplify data management and explored best practices tailored to the needs of the scientific community. Plus, they got the opportunity to dive into the know-how about data management, and its handling on a national level.

The conference enhanced the research with practical insights and solutions. Martin Golasowski from IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Centre presented iRODS as a solution for distributed data management in the Tools and Workflows session. This tool is supported as one of the methods for data movement in the EXA4MIND project. Jan Martinovič, the coordinator of the EXA4MIND project also took part in the ELIXIR CZ Annual Conference 2024, specifically in the session Community and best practice, where he presented data management from the HPC point of view oriented towards AI solutions.

EXA4MIND attends SC24

The international conference for high-performance computing, networking, storage, and analysis (SC24) took place from 17 to 22 November at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, US. SC24 was the place to be this fall as the high-performance computing community convened for an exhilarating week of sessions, speakers, and networking at its finest.

The conference was an unparalleled mix of thousands of scientists, engineers, researchers, educators, programmers, and developers who intermingled to learn, share, and grow. Each year, SC provides the leading technical programme for the HPC community, designed to share best practices in all areas of high-performance computing. This year, the conference welcomed over 18,000 attendees.

The conference also offered space to 494 exhibitors. SC24 gave visitors the opportunity to meet and interact with industry, research organisations, universities, and start-ups joining from across the globe. The exhibitors showcased their cutting-edge technologies, products, and services to thousands of attendees. One of the exhibitors was IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center. The project coordinator took this opportunity to promote its activities and the projects it is involved in. EXA4MIND was also visible at the conference since the team led by Jan Martinovič promoted its activities and application cases at booth no. 4233.

Campaign: Faces of EXA4MIND

With the series ‘Faces of EXA4MIND’ we want to introduce the people who work every day to achieve our ambitious goal: Building a platform for Extreme Data that enables advanced data analytics on supercomputers and automated data management with support for integration by design with EOSC and European data spaces.

Martin Golasowski (IT4Innovations)

We present Martin Golasowski from IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center and the WP1 (Architecture Co-design) leader of EXA4MIND. When asked what makes this project special, he is clear about it: "The most positive impact of the project is bringing together the world of databases and their instances to the world of Supercomputing with the batch processing and job scheduling. And solving many interesting issues, which appeared along the way, which are mainly related to the data transfers and the differences between the different infrastructures, which those two worlds are using".

Watch his interview here.

The DataNexus Cluster

Discover the DataNexus cluster: Advanced Solutions for Big Data & Artificial Intelligence Challenges

Dive into the world of advanced data management and discover how seven pioneering EU-funded projects – Graph-Massivizer, EXTRACT EU, NearData, EMERALDS, SYCLOPS, EFRA and EXA4MIND – join forces in the DataNexus cluster. Together, we are pushing the boundaries of big data, AI, IoT and advanced computing to help navigate the complexities of today's data-driven landscape.

Watch our latest video to find out what the DataNexus cluster is capable of!

Watch the video here.

Meet the projects behind the DataNexus cluster

For the first time, the projects of the DataNexus cluster met at the European Big Data Value Forum in Budapest (EBDVF 2024). We took the opportunity to get to know the faces behind each of them.

Press play and discover the essence of each project and what they expect from the cluster!

Watch the video here.