€5.3 million tender for Hybrid Cloud Platform serving science

Today Helix Nebula – The Science Cloud (HNSciCloud) launched a €5.3 million tender for the establishment of a European hybrid cloud platform. The purpose of the platform is to support the deployment of high-performance computing and big-data capabilities for scientific research.

PIC is part or the project.

Click here to read the press release

Click here to read the article in Datacenter Dynamics (spanish)

PIC featured on catalan television TV3

The TV channel focuses on the fact that the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona is at position number 20 in the ranking of the most energetically sustainable Universities in the world.

The Port d’Informació Científica (PIC) contributes to reach this goal thanks to its measures to reduce the energetic waste. An example are the oil tanks to maintain computers at a constant temperature. The processors are cooled with an efficiency a 40% better than the normal computers.

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HTCondor and ARC-CE users Workshop

The “HTCondor and ARC-CE users Workshop” was held in ALBA Synchrotron, from from 29 February 2016 to 4 March 2016. The event was organized by ALBA and PIC, and gathered around 70 participants, mainly from Europe, US and Asia.

The workshop was an opportunity for HTCondor users to learn and get help from the HTCondor and ARC developers and experts. Many sites transitioning to HTCondor batch system (such as PIC) and newcomers spent a very productive and successful week.

Students visit PIC!

Around 150 students from secondary schools and IT professional degrees have visited PIC on several occasions during February 2016. This activity is organised by the UAB and the ESCOLAB program, an initiative of the Barcelona City Council, in which PIC takes part since 2011. About 2000 students have visited PIC since.

During these outreach events the students learn about the scientific foundations of the main areas of research at PIC as well as the fundamental role of Information Technology in Science. By exploring the largest Grid computing facility in Spain, the students realise about the important role that computing plays in modern scientific endeavour. These visits are hosted by J. Flix (coordinator), A. Pérez-Calero, J. Carretero, among other PIC members.

If you want to visit PIC, you can ask for more information here.

The Large Tape User Group in Europe

Oracle is pleased to be lead sponsor of the 7th annual Large Tape User Group (LTUG) event in Europe, which will be held in Barcelona, Spain on 7th/8th October, 2015. In addition to LTUG, we’ll also be hosting a Media and Entertainment session for members of our Front Porch community.

Casa Convalescència in Barcelona will be the location for the meeting.  Along with our hosts, Port d’Informació Científica (PIC), LTUG is also pleased to welcome Barium Ferrite Technology as co-sponsor.

About LTUG

LTUG provides users of Oracle’s very large StorageTek robotic tape libraries and storage devices with a forum to discuss common concerns and issues related to running very large data centers. The group works to provide an environment where members feel comfortable in talking to one another, to Oracle management and to Oracle Engineers. LTUG is a members−only conference, so attendees must apply for membership to attend the event.

To learn more about LTUG, please go to ioug.org/ltug. To apply for membership, first apply for “Associate Membership” at ioug.org, then request to join LTUG.

First light for the PAU camera

The camera for the PAU (Physics of the Accelerating Universe) project has been successfully installed on the William Herschel telescope at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma during the day of June 3rd, has seen its first light that same night and has finished its commissioning today. This instrument is specially designed to measure with precision the distance to galaxies in order to study how the Universe is expanding ever more rapidly under the influence of the mysterious dark energy which makes of 70% of it.

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