Studying supercomputers
Participating in the first European Master’s degree programme in high performance computing
A European consortium including FAU aims to develop a pan-European pilot Master’s degree programme for high performance computing (HPC). As of winter semester 2022/23, the partners hope to offer courses that will offer students excellent career opportunities in the rapidly-growing fields of HPC and high-performance data analytics.
FAU has many years of experience in international Master’s degree programmes and will coordinate the pilot project in conjunction with the other universities involved. Modules from the European HPC Master’s programme will be integrated into the Master’s degree programme in Computational Engineering at FAU. Students will receive support with tuition fees, mobility costs and industrial internships. At FAU, the EU-funded initiative will be supported by the Faculty of Engineering, the Department of Computer Science and the Erlangen National High-Performance Computing Centre (NHR@FAU). FAU will also involve other partners from Germany who intend to offer Master’s degree programmes in HPC in future.
With an overall budget of 7 million euros, the consortium made up of European universities, research and high-performance computing centres and industrial partners will develop a university programme. The programme will focus in particular on providing training to students in areas such as design, application, operation and/or use of current and future generations of HPC and HPC-related technologies in Europe. It will also provide training to experts who are capable of driving forward the introduction of HPC and the transfer of knowledge in industry and universities in various strategic areas, thus linking activities in the field of HPC in industry and universities.
While many universities include basic IT skills and programming languages on their curricula, courses offered today have to be adapted to suit a rapidly changing HPC environment. The curriculum of the pilot HPC Master’s degree programme will have a modular format allowing some or all of the modules to be integrated into new or existing Master’s degree programmes. The availability of experts in HPC such as HPC administrators and architects, data scientists with HPC skills, HPC application developers and skilled users is a key factor for digital transformation in Europe and requires the training of highly-qualified and talented university graduates.
A central aim of the initiative is to strengthen mobility between European universities, research centres and industry. The new HPC Master’s degree programme will be geared towards target groups in science and industry and cater to important stakeholders in the private and public sector.
About the consortium
The consortium led by the University of Luxembourg consists of universities, research institutions and high-performance computing centres, as well as SME and partners from industry. Eight universities will award the degree initially: University of Luxembourg, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Politecnico di Milano, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Sorbonne Université, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Università della Svizzera Italiana, and Kungliga Tekniska Hoegskolan. Additional universities and institutes are expected to participate in the programme in future.
About the EuroHPC JU
The EuroHPC JC was established by Council Regulation (EU) 2018/1488 in 2018. 29 European countries are currently participating in the initiative and pooling their resources with the EU and private partners to enable the EU to become a world leader in supercomputing. The aim of the EuroHPC JC is to develop, set up, extend and maintain an integrated world-class supercomputing and data infrastructure in the EU and to develop and support a highly competitive and innovative HPC environment.
More information is available on the EuroHPC JU website.
Further information
Alexandra Lukas-Rother
Chair of Computer Science 10 (System Simulation)
alexandra.lukas-rother@fau.de