July 5, 2018 — The 13th edition of the Forum Teratec has just closed at Ecole Polytechnique. It allowed the 1,300 participants to take stock of state-of-the-art high-performance computing (HPC) and digital simulation, as well as most innovative technologies such as HPDA, big data processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Plenary sessions

Plenary sessions provided a substantial panorama of user needs from all industrial sectors, as well as current state-of-the-art from Suppliers and Research. In introduction, Christian Saguez, President of Teratec recalled the challenges that all economic sectors will have to face in order to achieve their digital transition in terms of HPC, big data and HPDA, as well as every effort made by Teratec helping SMEs and midcaps to take this particular step. He also announced the setting-up of one Competence center in quantum computing on the Teratec Campus in Bruyères-le-Châtel (Essonne), paired with a collaboration agreement with Genopole to launch one significant program dedicated to personalized medicine.

François Bouchet, Director General of Ecole Polytechnique (X), recalled the importance of HPC in the curriculum of X students and in fundamental research activities conducted hereto. Isabelle Ryl, Director General (Industrial Transfers and Partnerships) and Bruno Raffin, Research Director atINRIA, recalled own initiatives and actions taken in such specific fields as Digital Simulation, HPC and Cloud. Eric Van Hensbergen, Senior Director of HPC at ARM, explained how he develops processors and architectures tailored to HPC needs. With a highly appreciated presentation, Nicolas Vayatis,Director of the CMLA of the ENS Paris-Saclay stressed the role of Human Intelligence as a key driver to expand Artificial Intelligence. Finally, Cédric Villani, Fields Medal 2010, Member of French Parliament for Essonne, First Vice-President of OPECST (Office parlementaire d’évaluation des choix scientifiques et technologiques) and coordinator of the parliamentary report ”Donner un sens à l’intelligence artificielle”, closed the morning sessions. Before starting interactive questions and answers with the audience, he particularly insisted on the fact that science, and specifically AI, can no longer develop today without increasing the considerable computation quantity.

In the afternoon, Rémi Bastien, Renault’s VP Prospective Automotive, explained the major challenges facing all players within the Mobility market and how HPC can help them. Eric Papin, technical Director of Naval Group, added a similar contribution for shipbuilding, insisting on the ”Digital Twin” approach for both ships at sea as well as means of production. Jean-Philippe Nominé, from the CEA’s Strategic Analysis Department, gave an overview of HPC developments in Europe, resulting in the very first European digital program (Digital Europe) endowed with 10 billion Euros over the 2021/2027 period. Denis Caromel, President and founder of ActiveEon, showed how HPC linked to hybrid Cloud can handle very large volumes of data in a very flexible way. On his side,Eric Selosse, VP and General Manager of the Emulation division of Mentor (Siemens Group) showed how specialized supercomputers can validate software and hardware as emulators, even before producing the slightest silicon wafer.

Technical and application workshops

The 8 technical and application workshops run on Wednesday reported on research and technologic al innovations in HPC, HPDA, artificial intelligence, deep learning, quantum computing, digital twin… but also on users’ experience in such varied application sectors as Predictive maintenance; Personalized medicine; Cultural and creative industries; Construction; Autonomous vehicles; etc. These workshops were led by recognized experts from various backgrounds (Abvent ; Ansys ; Atos/Bull ; Autodesk ; Cadfem ; Cap Digital ; CEA ; Cerfacs ; CNES ; CPU24/7 ; ESI Group ; Genopole ; Google ; HPE ; Hyperion ; IBM ; Intel ; Irisa ; Microsoft ; Mikkros ; Naval Group ; Oktal ; Posos ; Ranch Computing ; Renault ; Rescale ; Sirehna ; Stimergy ; Teamto ; Technicolor ; University of Alabama ; Valeo ; Vedecom; etc.).

Award ceremony

The Champions of Simulation and Digital Techniques were rewarded for the 4th time during the award ceremony: Urban & You won the “Start-up” Trophy. The “SME” Trophy was awarded to Masa Group. The “Innovation” Trophy was granted to Sopra Steria Group. The “Collaboration” Trophy was awarded to Safran Tech and its partners. Finally, the “1st Grand Prix du Public” was granted to MécaStyle.

Exhibition

The exhibition enabled more than 60 companies to present new products and conduct previews to Forum visitors: supercomputers; software suites; Artificial Intelligence platforms; processors; digital simulation tools; services for HPC and Big Data; Deep Learning tools… with the latest hardware and software technologies displayed in terms of data processing and management, storage and distribution, etc. At the European Research Café, a dozen organizations also presented their work to visitors across thematic areas in an educational and practical way.

Looking forward

A great success, indeed, for the Forum Teratec 2018 edition, as one unique event in Europe where R&D and Industry leaders showed an audience of more than 1,300 people over two days how Big Data, simulation, HPC and HPDA technologies help take the turn of today’s digital transformation.

Save the date for next year at TERATEC FORUM: June 11 & 12, 2019.

Check for more information in real-time on: Forum Teratec.

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Source: TERATEC