Impact #1 Economic and Business Impact
The project's focus on these crucial aspects will take shape from M13, with the groundwork done in the first project phases (from 2018 to 2022). Although the task had not started in the first reporting period, proactive steps were already taken to engage with industry stakeholders. It is facilitated, amongst others, by active participation in industry-related activities organised by CASTIEL2. Participation in events and conferences, such as SIAM 2023, has further improved the visibility of the project and contact with potential business partners. The project team is also actively involved in the design of the CASTIEL2 marketplace, the so-called LinkHPC platform. This platform is developing into a marketplace where HiDALGO2 can offer services to external parties in the future. We are well prepared for the second reporting period, where the focus will be on creating business impact in the context of dissemination.
Impact #2 Societal Impact
The society will benefit from HiDALGO2 use cases as these use cases can teach us how to reduce risks and make better decisions for preventing them and for fighting them when they become real. Other areas could also be addressed in the future, in line with the current use cases, like food security (agriculture), healthcare or even economy. The activities of HiDALGO2 aim to achieve tangible societal impacts through active collaboration and engagement. The project has already made initial successes within the first reporting period. For example, the continuous involvement of SZE in FAIRMODE, the European Forum for Air Quality Modeling, and the collaboration between the Team for Renewable Energy Sources (RES) at PSNC and one of the largest Polish Distribution System Operators (DSO) are notable achievements. In the latter case, the collaboration focused on predicting damage to the overhead power grid in a major Polish city due to extreme weather conditions.
Impact #3 Scientific Impact
The project has also made progress in overcoming global challenges in its pilot applications. In the Urban Air Project (UAP), for example, the RedSIM implementation has been extended to multi-GPU and OpenMPI infrastructures, and work is underway on a digital twin prototype to be presented at HiPEAC 2024. For Urban Buildings (UB), developing algorithms, data structures, and visualisation tools for calculating solar protection masks at the district and city levels (e.g. Strasbourg and New York) was a significant success. In the area of renewable energy sources (RES), the coupling with the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) and the Eulerian Atmosphere Model (EULAG) was realised. Also, the project's commitment to visualisation aspects is underlined by the continued integration of the Unreal Engine with GIS data sources for immersive visualisation in VR environments, particularly in the wildfires pilot. This activity also helps reach out to society via more easy-to-understand visualisations for policymakers. Overall, HiDALGO2 has made significant progress towards our envisioned scientific impact in the first period.