About Educational Activity

Training of Specialists in Computational Physics and Information Technology

Objective

The training and retraining of specialists in computational physics and information technology on the basis of the Multifunctional Information and Computing Complex (MICC) of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) and its educational components are performed for:

• upskilling JINR staff members in order to develop scientific projects, including megascience ones, which are implemented at JINR or with its participation, as well as to create and support the JINR Digital EcoSystem (DES);
  
• disseminating competencies in computational physics and information technology to the regions of Russia and the JINR Member States to enhance the personnel potential of JINR and organizations cooperating with the Institute.

Rationale

The main prerequisite for the creation of the activity is the necessity to form a research environment in order to ensure the professional growth of IT specialists, the creation and development of scientific groups, and the engagement of new specialists in JINR projects. The additional training of the personnel, mainly on request of the JINR Laboratories, should be aimed at developing special competencies, in-depth knowledge and practical skills in computational physics and information technology.

The relevance of attracting students is related to the possibility of their participation in real projects over a long period of time. Starting with study practices, students can solve small tasks, gaining experience in teamwork and investigating the details of the project. Further, the most promising students will have the opportunity to continue working in scientific groups and prepare their bachelor’s or master’s theses. In the future, upon admission to graduate school, they will be able to become JINR trainee researchers.

To solve the task of attracting students, it is proposed to develop special courses and organize events (schools, conferences, hackathons, etc.) on the basis of JINR Information Centers and universities cooperating with JINR.

Tasks

1.   Holding events for JINR staff members to study:
   • opportunities to work on the MICC components and in the DES;
   • distributed and parallel computing;
   • work with application packages;
   • principles for applying state-of-the-art IT solutions, technologies, etc.
   
   
2.   Forming a set of JINR projects in which students can participate.
   
   
3.   Forming a list of competencies and required courses for the implementation of projects.
   
   
4.   Elaboration of training courses and educational programs that will provide personnel training for solving a variety of tasks within projects.
   
   
5.   Creation of an ecosystem for the implementation of educational programs on the basis of the JINR MICC, including the cloud infrastructure, the HybriLIT heterogeneous computing platform, which comprises the education and testing polygon and the “Govorun” supercomputer.
   
   
6.   Creation of a software and information environment and a platform for organizing and holding events, lectures, workshops, hackathons, etc.
   
   
7.   Involvement of specialists from JINR and JINR Information Centers, researchers from the JINR Member States’ organizations, lecturers from leading educational organizations that cooperate with JINR in order to hold educational and scientific events.
   
   
8.   Forming event programs and organizing interaction with universities and JINR Information Centers.
   
   
9.   Conducting lectures and excursions for schoolchildren.
   

Cooperation

UC JINR, JINR Information Centers, higher educational institutions of the Russian Federation and the JINR Member States.