The 4th AICS International Symposium Report (December 2 to 3, 2013)

The 4th AICS International Symposium took place on December 2 and 3, 2013, with approximately 130 participants including distinguished scientists from five countries outside Japan.

The session on cutting-edge research in disaster simulation included outcomes from China on a simulation of structural damage from earthquakes in Shanghai, showing how individual buildings are shaken into collapsing and suggesting optimal evacuation and disaster-resilient city design.

The symposium also included a session on social science simulations in areas such as traffic congestion or optimal traffic signal timing based on simulations of individual vehicles’ behavior, research from the US on movements of molecules within the body, as well as a session on simulation research in the field of computational chemistry which has drawn significant attention due to the Nobel Prize in chemistry this year.

In addition, a session on future perspectives of supercomputers showcased a variety of projects worldwide such as the operation of AICS, a Spanish project to build a supercomputer using CPUs from mobile phones, and the Blue Waters Project in the US and provided occasion for vigorous discussions.

A reception and poster session were also held to promote exchanges between researchers.