SCAT - Scientific Computing Advanced Training

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What is SCAT?

SCAT stands for Scientific Computing Advanced Training. It is an international collaboration project, involving 10 institutions in Europe and Latin America. We develop a programme of international scientific meetings or workshops, and we provide mobility grants to post-graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. We organize short courses in the technical aspects of computational research, and develop online materials for self-learning. All of this serves the purpose of training young scientists for discovery through simulation.

("Scat" is also a form of jazz singing; legend says it was made popular by Louis Armstrong, who dropped his lyrics sheet in the studio and went right on singing with wordless vocalizing. See the wiki on scat singing.)

Who is a part of it?

In Europe, our partners are: University of Bristol (co-ordinating institution), and Daresbury Laboratories, in the United Kingdom; in France, the École Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles (ESPCI), Université Pierre et Marie Curie, and Institute de Recherche sur les Phénomènes Hors Equilibre, in Marseille; in Spain, the Universitat Técnica de Catalunya.

The Latin American Partners are: Universidad de Chile, and Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, in Chile; in Mexico, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; and in Brazil, Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada, in Rio de Janeiro.

Go to Network Partners for more >>

How is it funded?

The SCAT project is co-funded by EuropeAid, through the ALFA Programme. This is a multi-year programme of academic co-operation between the European Union and Latin America.

In addition to the European Commission, the project receives the funding of the network partners themselves. We have a committment of 25% co-financing, which we satisfy by partially paying for trips, scholarships, conference costs and other expenses.

 

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What actions are contemplated?

The SCAT project will offer, in the span of three years, 20 mobility grants. Of these, 16 will be for Latin American grant-holders to come to Europe, and four will be for European grant-holders to go to Latin America.

We organize three international meetings every year, which are held in one of our parnter institutions. These events provide a forum for discussion and collaboration in the scientific areas of our interest, and for co-ordination of the project.

In addition, we work together to prepare a body of online learning material in the areas related to scientific computing, and will hold short-courses in the same topic.

What is Scientific Computing?

Scientific Computing is a multi-disciplinary activity, involving applied mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists and other experts. The activity refers to the design, development, implementation, and analysis of algorithms for the solution of scientific problems using computers. In other words, to understand a given problem, one approaches it by simulation of the phenomena, using a computer program. Scientific computing has been called the "third pillar of science", as it stands next to theoretical analysis and experiments for scientific discovery. In fact, scientific computing has become a crucial contributor to most research programmes, in almost every field. But it is of particular importance in the following situations: (i) when dealing with problems which cannot be solved by traditional experimental or theoretical means, such as prediction of climate change; (ii) when experimentation may be dangerous, for example, in the characterization of toxic chemicals; and, (iii) when the problem would be too expensive or time-consuming to try to solve by other avenues, like in the determinaton of the structure of proteins.

There are several stages and complementary aspects to scientific computing:

1. Basic theoretical research — simulation cannot be done without first laying the foundation, which is the mathematical description of the phenomena. At this stage, the theoretical scientists are at work.
2. Scientific code development — once the governing equations and boundary conditions have been derived, then the mathematical algorithms must be provided, followed by the basic computer software. Computational scientists and applied mathematicians contribute this job.
3. Code validation and verification — an important stage which must not be overlooked, the validation of codes implies comparing computed results with experimental data. This is a practical, inter-disciplinary task involving computational research scientists and experimentalists. There are also cases when confirmation from physical experiments is not possible (e.g. astrophysics, nanotechnology); assessing the accuracy of the simulations in these cases is equally important and challenging.
4. Numerical experiments and visualization of results — once a scientific code is in production, there remains the task of using it as a virtual laboratory to obtain insight and deeper understanding of the scientific problem. Visualizing the phenomena, in three-dimensional space and in time, using appropriate computer graphics tools is also a crucial task for discovery through simulation.

[ wiki on Scientific Computing ]

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Can I get a grant to go to Europe?

To be eligible for one of the SCAT grants to go to Europe, you must be a post-graduate student or a post-doctoral fellow in one of the Latin American network partners. You must also be a national of a Latin American country, but not necessarily the countries of the network partners. The pre-requisites for application are the following:

1. A Bachelor of Science or equivalent in an area of mathematics, physics or a branch of engineering;
2. a strong mathematical background;
3. proven English language skills (by standard test scores: TOEFL/IELTS);
4. at least some previous experience in research;
5. computer programming skills;
6. elevated commitment to your professional development and an inclination towards research, as demonstrated in a Personal Statement.

You must also get into contact with your local SCAT members, discuss possible research topics previous to application, and chose a host institution in Europe.

Please note that the English language requirement applies irrespective of the country of destination (France, Spain or the UK), as the official language of the project is English. Most scientific literature is in English, and you will be required to read plenty of it! Moreover, it is expected that you will prepare your research results for publication —in English— by the end of the mobility (with the help of your supervisors). Language improvement courses can be provided, both at the institution of origin and the host institution.

Can I go to Daresbury Lab for my mobility?

Daresbury Laboratory is the only network partner that is not a higher education institution; it is a research laboratory, often working in collaboration with research groups in universities. The SCAT members in Daresbury belong to the Computational Science and Engineering Department, which provides world-class expertise and support for the computational science community. Daresbury Laboratory also hosts the HPCx National High Performance Computing Service, a 12Tflop/s peak IBM p690+ cluster.

A small number of mobility grants to Europe are earmarked to be shared with Daresbury Labs. It is expected that the grant-holders will spend a period of 2 or 3 months in Daresbury, in addition to a longer stay at a host university in Europe. This would be the case, for example, if the research project involved parallelizing a code, optimizing it for Beowulf clusters, or carrying out a scalability study. Note, however, that the design of the mobilities is such that you still need another partner institution in Europe to host you.

 

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I'm in Europe, can I go to Latin America to work?

The SCAT project will offer four grants for European post-graduate students or post-doctoral fellows to spend a period of study and research at one of the Latin American partners. These grants are subject to the same conditions as the mobilities from Latin America to Europe.

How much do grants pay?

The mobility grants cover full travel costs, up to a maximum of €1500 round-trip, and pay a monthly stipend of €1500. The stipend is to cover living expenses, and all other expenses of the grant-holder during their stay at the host-institution. There is an allowable additional expense for preparation of the mobility, which refers to language or cultural training at the institution of origin; the maximum amount for this concept is €600. Additional language upgrading at the host institution is allowed for a maximum of €1500, but only in justified cases. Grant-holders with a shared research project with Daresbury Laboratory will be eligible for a round-trip European journey of up to €600.

The total budget for the mobility program is €330 400, which means that on average the grants are worth €16 520 each.

What kind of projects do grant-holders do?

The research projects involving the grant-holders are collaborative projects between members of SCAT in the host institution and the institution of origin. They will generally be in a subject of applied computational research, and necessarily will involve a degree of computer programming. There may be intense theoretical components as well, and even experimental aspects, depending on the subject. For example, a project may involve the validation of a scientific code by comparison with experiments. Other projects may have to do with parallel implementation of a given method currently implemented only in serial mode, or perhaps efficiency and scalability studies.

For the subject area of application, visit the Research area of this site, which describes the topics of interest of the SCAT partners. As they become available, specific projects for grant-holders will be showcased in this site.

 

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How does this project help its partners?

For the partner institutions in both Europe and Latin America, this project will give a thrust to collaborative research. Our goal is to produce joint contributions to the advancement of computational science and engineering. Through the collaborative experience, long-lasting relationships are created.

Most importantly, the young scientists participating in the mobility program will obtain hands-on training in the methods and applications of advanced computational research. They will also gain a valuable international experience, and academic contacts in the world at the highest level.

For the Latin American grant-holders, after a training and research experience in Europe, upon coming back to their country of origin they will be able to introduce new ideas, methods and perspectives in the local and regional scientific community, and the technology or business sectors they may become involved with. For the grant-holders coming from Europe, a stay in the Latin American countries provides an experience of awareness with the world that stimulates a spirit of coopeation in the future. In all cases, grant-holders benefit from the cultural exchanges and develop lasting links with their host countries and institutions.

The scientific communities of all partner institutions involved in the network will experience a positive impact by the enhanced research production that is expected when a systematic effort at collaboration is added to the funding of young researchers/grant-holders. It can be anticipated that the dialogue betweent the network partners will give rise to numerous new research initiatives, and collaborative projects.

How long will the SCAT project last?

The SCAT project in the framework of the ALFA Programme has a three-year duration, ending on 25 November 2008.

And what happens after that?

There are various ways in which the SCAT project can survive its ALFA Programme funding. We foresee that a possible offshoot of the SCAT project actions is the proposal of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) graduate programmes that can be implemented in some of the Latin American and/or European partner institutions. Such a result would haved a long-term impact, as CSE will undoubtedly play a dominat role in the future of the processes of scientific discovery and engineering design. Other aspects of sustainability include:

1. The international meetings and workshops may give rise to an annual or biannual event that can be carried on with other sources of funding.
2. Materials produced, such as online training manuals in topics of scientific computing, will survive the project.
3. International teams of research will likely continue collaborations; indeed, the goal of the ALFA programme is the fostering of long-term partnerships.
4. The network partners may find ways to attract additional funding, to carry out further actions not foreseen at the outset.

I still have questions, who do I ask?

Email us with your question at:

 

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Mobility Grants

• FAQs
• Applications

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Contact Information

Project co-ordinator:

Dr. Lorena Barba

+44 117 954 6883

Dept. of Mathematics

University of Bristol

 

Project manager:

Mr. Boris Drappier

+44 117 331 1805

Dept. of Mathematics

University of Bristol

 

General Enquiries:

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