From 31 March to 4 April 2021, a School Conference and the workshop “Distributed Computing and Data Science” were held in the North Ossetian State University on the basis of the JINR Information Centre in the South of Russia.

In the frames of the workshop, round tables took place dedicated to the issues of educational programmes and the scientific-project cooperation between JINR and NOSU with the participation of the heads of the Faculty of Physics and Technology and the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of NOSU, as well as the Institute of System Analysis and Management of the State University “Dubna”.

A round table chaired by NOSU Rector A. U. Ogoev opened the workshop. Participants evaluated the results of the work of the Information Centre (IC) and discussed its upcoming tasks. In particular, participants noted that the intense work on the creation of the IC had started three years ago with the visit of the JINR delegation. In general, many ideas has begun to be implemented recently. The launch of the cloud cluster in NOSU in February 2020 played a significant role in the enhancement of the cooperation. Over the past year, this cluster was actively involved in the JINR computing infrastructure and became the third in the frames of the JINR group in the “Folding at Home” project. Thus, the path from the two-day school “Modern IT technologies for solving scientific challenges” held in May 2019 to the task of systematic training of IT employees was passed.

On 1 April, a plenary session was held in the conference hall of the NOSY library that gathered 200 students of four faculties interested in the study of modern information technologies, as well as teachers and managers. Representatives of the North Caucasus Mining and Metallurgical Institute, the centre IT-CUBE.Vladikavkaz, and the Republican Boarding School “Quantorium” were guests of the event. The meeting was solemnly opened by NOSU Rector A. U. Ogoev, LIT JINR Director V. V. Korenkov, Dean of the Faculty of Physics and Computer Science of NOSU R. Ch. Kulaev, and Head of the JINR International Cooperation Department D. V. Kamanin. The programme included lectures on the JINR scientific projects, information technologies and solutions under development in Dubna by JINR and the University “Dubna”. The plenary session ended with the lecture by IC Director N. E. Pukhaeva on the activity of the Information Centre.

The JINR delegation organized workshops and training courses for students of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science on distributed computing and specialized software packages for data processing in high energy physics, machine and deep learning algorithms for the analysis of complex data. Lectures on the topical issues of JINR scientific work were delivered for physics students, in particular, BLTP Deputy Director M. Hnatič delivered a lecture on theoretical physics. A DLNP senior researcher N. E. Pukhaeva reported on the MPD/NICA experiment.

As a result of the visit of the Institute’s delegation, which had a friendly atmosphere, agreements were achieved to create a department of the JINR International School on Information Technologies on the basis of the JINR Information Centre in the South of Russia. The parties also agreed to create a joint programme and information environment for all Information Centres on the basis of the HybriLIT heterogeneous platform and the cloud infrastructure of the Multifunctional information and computing complex of MLIT JINR. In the framework of the JINR IT School, programmes will be implemented for training highly qualified IT specialists for mega-science projects being implemented by JINR and for breakthrough IT projects being implemented in the South of Russia. It is planned to open two educational courses one of which will focus on information technologies and IT solutions for data analysis in the fields of high energy physics, and the other one will aim to train IT specialists in the fields of data science. A common block of these educational programmes will include disciplines on mathematical apparatus and tools for data analysis, distributed and parallel computing, machine and deep learning algorithms, techniques for working with big data. The programme implemented jointly with the Faculty of Physics and Technology will include modules for the application of software packages and IT solutions used in high energy physics for data analysis and processing.

The parties noted the participation of teachers and the best NOSU students in the School at the GRID-2021 conference as the next step towards the development of cooperation in the IT realm. Jointly with the ISAM of the University “Dubna”, JINR will form a special programme for exchange of experience in IT disciplines teaching at universities and in the attraction of talented youth to the JINR projects. Information technologies will also be a part of the traditional school on current research fields of JINR that will take place in May 2021 on the basis of the Information Centre in NOSU.

Photos by NOSU press office and participants of events