ACADEMIA

EU research is focused on getting energy efficient and low-cost computing technologies, oriented towards mobile devices, data centers and high performance systems

Computing technologies continue allowing for more powerful devices, but application requirements are growing faster, so more research is needed. The European Commission is aware of this and has been substantially increasing the research funding for computing since 2004. The High-Performance and Embedded Architectures and Compilers Network (HiPEAC) was created in 2004 as a means to organize the computing systems community in Europe. The HiPEAC network currently represents more than 1000 active researchers in computing systems in Europe and it is the biggest and most visible such network in Europe.

The successful 7th HiPEAC Conference, which has tripled its attendance and exposure since last year, took place in Paris from Monday 23 to Wednesday 25 January. As explained in the keynote address by Dr. Max Lemke, Deputy Head of Unit for Embedded Systems and Control in the Directorate General Information Society and Media of the European Commission, the main goal of the research in computing systems is getting energy efficient and low-cost computing technologies into the full spectrum of devices and systems, from mobile and embedded systems to data centers and supercomputers. He referred to EuroCloud, one of the current European flagship projects, led by major research centers and industrial partners such as Nokia and ARM. Its objective is to increase by 10 the efficiency in server chip level power consumption.

Horizon 2020, a window of opportunities

"Computing is a key enabler for Europe's competitiveness in engineering, which is a key driver for the European economy" Dr. Lemke said in his keynote. "Europe has to leverage its unique expertise in embedded and mobile computing systems to innovate in energy efficient and low-cost computing technologies", he added.

Horizon 2020, the new European programme for Research and Innovation, is Europe's flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness. Running from 2014 to 2020 with a proposed €80 billion budget, Horizon 2020 is part of the drive to create new growth and jobs in Europe.

Koen De Bosschere, professor at Gent University and the coordinator of the HiPEAC network, mentions that "In Horizon 2020, next generation computing is one of the proposed main activity lines in ICT research. The HiPEAC network is fully committed to help steering this research effort and to prepare the community to take on the computing challenges ahead of us. Thousands of research positions in computing systems will be posted at the HiPEAC jobs site over the next decade".

HiPEAC Conference 2012

The HiPEAC conference is the flagship event of the HiPEAC network, and a key instrument to implement the HiPEAC vision for advanced computing systems in Europe. This year's conference attracted 50% more paper submissions and three times more delegates.

Per Stenström, Professor at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) and chairman of the HiPEAC conference steering committee, explained that this is thanks to a completely new and innovative conference model. HiPEAC 2012 is the first computing conference to implement a journal-first publication model. "The idea is that the paper selection is outsourced to a journal (in this case ACM TACO), and that the authors are afterwards invited to present their work at the conference. This combines the benefits of journal publication with the networking and exposure benefits of a well-attended conference. The first survey results show that the new conference model is highly appreciated. We expect HiPEAC 2013 in Berlin to be an even more successful event than HiPEAC 2012".

Dr. Panagiotis Tsarchopoulos, project officer of the HiPEAC network, stresses that this conference "is a key instrument to implement the HiPEAC vision for advanced computing systems in Europe. This year's conference brought together over 500 computing systems stakeholders from all over the world for a three day networking event packed with high-quality technical meetings". The conference also created a "unique" opportunity for the complete portfolio of 40 EU-funded computing systems projects to network with computing systems researchers, and for the many companies innovating in computing systems to recruit the brightest graduates for their research and development departments.