Year 2023 is coming to an end and it is time to summarize some of the activies of the center. During the Autumn of 2023 OCAMM was involved in events related to computational materials modeling in academia, industry and international cooperation in high-performance computing.
Supercomputing for chemistry and materials science companies
On October 26th, CSC (the Finnish Center for Scientific Computing) organized a hybrid seminar to inform Finnish companies about the possibilities to use CSC‘s supercomputing resources, including LUMI, Europe’s fastest supercomputer, for their R&D needs. The seminar was hosted by Dr. Atte Sillanpää, who is in charge of coordinating chemistry-related activities at CSC. This event is part of the strategic effort of the EU’s EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, including the flagship LUMI supercomputer, to promote the use of supercomputing facilities and services across the European industry.
International workshop on machine learning interatomic potentials
On November 6th-10th, Aalto University hosted the 2023 Machine Learning Interatomic Potential School for Young & Early Career Researchers. This international conference, organized by a young team from EPFL, Switzerland and Aalto led by Dr. Max Veit, featured a series of scientific presentations and tutorials by international experts on the state of the art in machine learning applied to atomistic modeling of materials and molecules. The conference had a hybrid format, followed live by a remote audience scattered across the globe via Zoom, in addition to the in-person participants.
Seminar on AI for drug discovery by Prof. Rocío Mercado
On November 13th, the Department of Chemistry and Materials Science at Aalto University hosted an invited seminar by Prof. Rocío Mercado from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in biomolecular modeling and drug discovery. The seminar, organized by Dr. Miguel Caro from Aalto, gathered an audience from academia and industry in the Helsinki metro area, and highlighted the increasingly important role played by AI/ML in accelerating the discovery of pharmaceuticals and other useful organic compounds.
International cooperation between Finland and the US state of Colorado
As part of the bilateral agreement on economic cooperation between Finland and the US state of Colorado, a delegation from Colorado, featuring representatives from the chemical industry interested in sustainability and the green transition, visited the CSC headquarters in Keilaniemi on November 30th. OCAMM representatives from CSC and Aalto met the delegates to discuss how high-performance computing can be used to accelerate R&D in the chemical industry.