Cloud cluster launched and JINR Information Centre opened at INP in Almaty

News, 18 November 2023

On 11 November, within the guest CP JINR session, a new cloud computing cluster of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research was launched and a festive opening ceremony of the tenth JINR Information Centre took place at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The first JINR cloud computing cluster in the Republic of Kazakhstan and the 11th in the series was included in the distributed information computing environment (DICE) of the Joint Institute. The resources of the cloud cluster at the INP will be available for employees of scientific institutes and universities of Kazakhstan for their own research and the NICA and Baikal-GVD megascience projects, as they participate in these projects as part of cooperation with JINR. The cluster included in the DICE of JINR and organizations of the JINR Member States provides access to more hardware resources than the local INP cloud separately and opens up opportunities for scientists to obtain scientific results in a shorter time.

“Today, the Institute of Nuclear Physics has joined the JINR distributed cloud computing network. It will make our cooperation even more effective. I am very glad that the Director and the INP team have ambitious plans for the development of not only the reactor, but also the institute as a whole. The goal of the Joint Institute is to achieve in cooperation with you the implementation of projects that you have outlined,” JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov said in his welcoming speech. He also noted the relevance of the scientific programme of the INP of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the fields of neutron physics, radiation materials science, semiconductor technology, and high-temperature superconductors.

“I am very glad that every year we receive new tools and opportunities to do science in cooperation at the global level,” said Sayabek Sakhiyev, INP Director General, the Plenipotentiary Representative of the Government of Kazakhstan in JINR, commented on the event.” He highlighted that the opening of JINR cloud infrastructure clusters made it possible to join the efforts and resources of the JINR Member States in solving fundamental and applied problems, in order to quickly perform complex calculations and ensure high-precision research results.

Scientific Leader of the Laboratory of Information Technologies at JINR Vladimir Korenkov noted that the creation of the DICE JINR to join the computing capacities of the JINR Members States’ organizations is one of the key MLIT’s projects. Clusters distribute peak load among the participants of the cloud environment and provide access to various JINR experiments. “The distributed information computing systems currently includes 10 centres in seven countries. Now, I am really happy to take part in the opening of the 11th centre – the cloud centre at the INP in Almaty in Kazakhstan. The new cluster will contribute to extending cooperation not only in the field of physical research, but also in information technologies, which large-scale experiments use a lot,” Vladimir Korenkov said.

On the same day, an opening ceremony of the JINR Information Centre at the INP of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan took place. The Centre became the tenth in the family of JINR information centres. “This year, it is the third information centre, that we have opened at JINR Member States, which is a portal to Dubna, a portal to JINR. I believe and am sure that life will be boiling in this place,” Grigory Trubnikov highlighted.

“This JINR Information Centre will become a place where school children, students and young specialists, teachers will be able to get information about the research being carried out at JINR and INP, about scientific achievements and the importance of physics in the modern world. At the IC, we will hold events aimed at developing both the interest in science and its understanding in our society,” – Sayabek Sakhiyev said He added that it was planned to send young teachers to participate in JINR training programmes as part of the IC’s operation, as well as continue to send students to JINR for training and practice. “In addition, the INP will soon become a training centre for specialists in atomic energy. I am sure that the JINR Information Centre will play an important role in this direction,” the INP Director stated.

Director General of the Arab Atomic Energy Agency (AAEA) Salem Hamdi announced the upcoming official opening of the JINR Information Centre at the AAEA headquarters in Tunis and highlighted that this would be the first JINR IC in an international organization. For AAEA, in turn, it will be the first experience in creating an educational centre in its structure. Salem Hamdi proposed to create a common information space that will allow ICs’ heads to directly interact, establish cooperation, and exchange experience.

IC JINR Head at the Irkutsk State University Andrey Tanaev, who was at the opening ceremony, talked about the history of the Dubna-Irkutsk cooperation, covering the Baikal-GVD Megascience Project among other things, and educational projects.

Andrey Lider, IC JINR Head at the Tomsk Polytechnic University, highlighted that the IC at TPU informs about advanced research of the Joint Institute in Siberia and attracts the widest audience. “I am sure that the new IC will become a platform where we can exchange ideas and develop new projects,” he concluded.

On behalf of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Head of the Department of Commercialization and Small Grants Renat Yelshibekov congratulated the audience on the launch of the cloud cluster and the opening of the Information Centre. “The opening of the cluster and the Information Centre will play a positive role in the science development in the field of joint nuclear research,” he said.

The first event of the new Information Centre was the Big Science exhibition, which presents the works by a photographer Mark Kozhura in the genre of industrial photography. The main characters of the photos are scientists and technical specialists of the Joint Institute working at their workplaces. These works are designed to tell the audience about advanced technologies, world-class achievements and scientific experiments, as well as people who do big science.

On the same day, the participants of the CP JINR session had a tour of the laboratories of the Institute of Nuclear Physics and its facilities. They saw the WWR-K Nuclear Research Reactor, the Radiopharmaceutical Production Centre, and the ILU-10 Pulsed Linear Electron Accelerator.

Representatives of the National Academy of Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Al-Farabi Kazakh National university took part in the events held at the INP of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan.