Practitioners, experts, and stakeholders who attended the Joint COARE and PREGINET Stakeholders’ Meeting posed for a group photo together with DOST-ASTI officials

There is an emerging demand in the local scientific community to strengthen collaborations and accelerate advancements in High-Performance Computing (HPC) and Research and Educational Networks (REN) infrastructures, since the roles of HPC and REN are extremely important in the nation’s pursuit of scientific innovations and data-driven research.

A High-Performance Computer has the capability to run high-level commands, analyze large sets of data and process intensive simulations that could assist the academia and the government in conducting research breakthroughs. RENs, on the other hand, provide high-speed backbone networks that help catalyze fruitful collaborations within a myriad of universities, government institutions and both local and international research communities.

Under the Department of Science and Technology–Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI), the Computing and Archiving Research Environment (COARE) functions as a high-performance computing facility that provides free services for research-related initiatives while the Philippine Research, Education, and Government Information Network (PREGINET) serves as the sole research and educational network of the nation.

In the pursuit of achieving the Philippine national R&D agenda, it is vital for COARE and PREGINET to bring together its stakeholders, users, and collaborators to discuss the significant trends and initiatives of the global HPC and REN scene, and deliberate about the readiness of our own local scientific community for the federation of HPC.

It is with this premise that the Department of Science and Technology–Advanced Science and Technology Institute recently held the first-ever Joint Computing and Archiving Research Environment (COARE) and Philippine Research, Education, and Government Information Network (PREGINET) Stakeholders’ Meeting last November 12, 2019, at the UP Computer Center Training Hall, UP Diliman, Quezon City.

With the theme “Towards a Shared Infrastructure for Research and Education”, experts from Europe and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), who are leading the initiatives on intra-regional shared e-science infrastructures, delivered remote messages and presentations regarding their current frameworks and development plans for computing infrastructures and research and educational linkages. These included Dr. Tan Tin Wee of the Singapore National Supercomputing Center, Mr. Eli Dart of the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), Mr. Gergely Sipos of the European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) and Dr. Suhaimi Napis of Universiti Putra Malaysia.

In the later part of the program, Mr. Bayani Benjamin R. Lara and Mr. Christian O. Matira shared technical updates regarding COARE and PREGINET. Ms. Jelina Tanya H. Tetangco then reported the results of a recently conducted survey on the readiness of HPC federation in the Philippines. This later led to an open discussion for the stakeholders and the attendees—an opportune time wherein the experts and practitioners of various domains shared knowledge, explored collaborations, and exchanged views on the future of HPC infrastructures and REN linkages in the Philippines.

-----

For more information, please like COARE and PREGINET’s pages on Facebook.