Simulation Lab Neuroscience Launched
The Simulation Laboratory Neuroscience at JSC was officially launched in an opening event on 14-15 January 2013. It will support the computational neuroscience community in leveraging high-end supercomputing resources such as JUQUEEN for their research. Like all other Simulation Labs in Jülich, the support mission of the Simulation Lab Neuroscience is grounded in its own research work, with a special focus on the methodological aspects.
Under the supervision of Prof. Abigail Morrison (IAS-6), about ten neuroscientists, computer scientists, mathematicians and physicists work together and with external groups on highly interdisciplinary tasks such as building large-scale models and databases of brain structure, function and connectivity, developing simulation, database and virtual reality technology, developing algorithms and workflows for data acquisition and analysis, and porting and optimizing scientific codes for supercomputers.
The Simulation Lab Neuroscience is a central element of the Helmholtz Portfolio Theme "Supercomputing and Modeling for the Human Brain", through which it receives the majority of its funding. As part of the Portfolio Theme, it will also contribute to the European "Human Brain Project". Additional funding for the Simulation Lab comes from the Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA). A special relationship has been established with the German National Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and connecting more than 200 research groups in Germany and beyond. The Simulation Lab Neuroscience contributes its expertise in simulation and database technology to the network as the "Bernstein Facility for Simulation and Database Technology".
In the opening event, the Simulation Lab Neuroscience was officially introduced to the scientific community. The event was attended by representatives of the Bernstein Network, the Helmholtz Association, and JARA-HPC. It gave an overview of the existing and planned activities combining neuroscience and HPC in Jülich and beyond, and featured a series of neuroscientific talks by renowned international speakers from the field. More information about the Simulation Lab can be found at http://www.fz-juelich.de/ias/jsc/slns.
(Contact: Dr. Boris Orth, b.orth@fz-juelich.de)
from JSC News No. 210, 25 February 2013