RIKEN AICS HPC Youth Workshop FY2017

The RIKEN AICS HPC Youth Workshop 2017, a computational science and technology workshop for students and young researchers, took place at AICS on February 5 and 6. This workshop began last fiscal year, aiming at human resource development of students and young researchers in the computational science field.
Directed at helping participants improve their communication skills for an international setting, as well as getting to know each other and form networks, the event had a strong international flavor with all presentations and discussions in English. A total of 19 people attended, including PhDs from overseas institutions, foreign exchange students in Japan, and Japanese students and researchers.

The workshop began with an orientation and mini lectures by AICS laboratory team leaders. Then participants were divided into four groups where they gave presentations on their own research. Two young researchers from AICS joined each group as mentors. A topic for discussion was given to each group and a summary was presented at the wrap-up session.

Final presentation material:
• Group A
• Group B
• Group C
• Group D

Not only the presentation of their research, but also the small group discussions on a designated topic contributed to improving English and communication skills. The contents of the discussions were very interesting, such as ideas for collaboration between different research fields.

The lectures by Dr. Ishikawa(AICS) and Dr. Yibing Shan(D. E. Shaw Research) were well received. A social gathering was planned this year in response to comments received last year indicating that participants wanted to hear about the research presented in other groups. Comments from this year’s participants included, “It was interesting to talk with man researchers from different fields” and “The event provided a great opportunity to get to know each other.” Some groups even went out to eat with each other after the event.
Taking into consideration the feedback we received, we plan to hold the workshop again next year. We look forward to your participation!