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High Performance and Embedded Architecture and Compilation

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - HiPEAC (High Performance and Embedded Architecture and Compilation)

Okres sprawozdawczy: 2017-01-01 do 2018-02-28

The top-level objectives of HiPEAC are:

(i) Structuring the European academic and industrial communities by increasing innovation awareness, by closing the gap between the academic and industrial communities, and by stimulating computing systems researchers to actively engage in innovation activities.
(ii) Increasing the impact of dissemination of program achievements and disseminate them beyond the traditional scientific venues.
(iii) Producing a HiPEAC Vision 2017 including evidence-based recommendations on how to improve the innovation potential of EU funded projects in computing systems
(iv) Growing the computing systems community to more than 2000 active members.

The objectives are implemented as five work packages. The different tasks are detailed below.
WP1: Community Structuring

This work package focuses on improving the conditions for innovation by creating stronger links between the academic and the industrial world.

In 2016, the HiPEAC Job Portal was renewed and became more attractive and user-friendly. The recruitment officer also actively promoted the portal in the community. This resulted in a strong increase in the number of jobs posted. The 2016 internship call resulted in the selection of 18 students for an internship grant while the 2017 call resulted in the selection of 35 students. During the industry exhibition, 17 booths were put up in the 2016 conference, 16 in the 2017 conference and 16 more in the 2018 conference. Industry talks were organised during the 2016 conference (9 talks), the Dublin Computing Systems Week (10 talks), the 2017 conference (13 talks), the Stuttgart Computing Systems Week (6 talks) and the 2018 conference (12 talks). HiPEAC educated its members on the importance of innovation by organising entrepreneurial talks at the summer school and the Dublin and Stuttgart Computing Systems Week. The network also collaborated intensely with the TETRACOM, TETRAMAX and the EuroLab-4-HPC Support Actions to stimulate technology transfer and innovation.

WP2: Result Dissemination

This work package wants to professionalize the communication of the HiPEAC support action, and open it up for the news of all the members, and in particular of the research projects. It also runs a roadshow and an award program to improve dissemination. A dedicated communication officer substantially improved the HiPEAC communications and thereby reached out to a wider, more diverse audience outside of the immediate HiPEAC community. A roadshow disseminated the achievements of the HiPEAC members beyond the community and attracted new industry members by attending 8 international trade shows over the whole project duration. 123 papers received a HiPEAC Paper Award, 20 members received a HiPEAC technology transfer award. Finally, HiPEAC4 awarded three distinguished service awards.

WP3: Vision Building

This work package produced a set of strategic documents for the community. The HiPEAC vision describes the HiPEAC vision on high-performance embedded architecture and compilation for the coming decade. The sixth version of the vision was published in December 2016. See hipeac.net/vision. In January 2017, it was sent to 456 researchers worldwide and distributed to the more than 500 participants of the HiPEAC 2017 Conference. In 2016, a first impact report was created based on a survey sent out to all partners of FP7 computing systems projects and an analysis of the concrete outcomes of these projects (in terms of papers, IP, trained scientists, ongoing collaborations …) was produced. In 2017, a final impact report was created based on a set of interviews with participants of selected FP7 projects. After an in-depth analysis of the collected input, 9 recommendations were formulated. HiPEAC also organised three consultation meetings with HiPEAC members and external invitees in collaboration with DG connect.

WP4: Constituency Building

In HiPEAC4, The HiPEAC conference has evolved into the second largest European Computing Conference (attracting 650 delegates in 2016, 556 in 2017 and 531 participants in 2018). HiPEAC also organized four computing systems weeks – each year one in Spring and one in Autumn. These computing systems weeks consist of thematic sessions, technology seminars and industrial partnership program sessions. The primary goal of the large networking events is to bring the HiPEAC community together under one roof on a regular basis, and thereby create an opportunity to meet and make collaboration plans. The ACACES 2016 and ACACES 2017 summer schools were held in Fiuggi, Italy. The summer school attracted 187 participants in 2016 and 179 participants in 2017. The 2016 collaboration grant call received 48 proposals. The review board ranked these proposals and 31 were granted. The 2017 collaboration grant call received 55 proposals and 39 were granted. One concertation meeting was organised in collaboration with DG Connect in 2016, bringing together 49 projects to network, disseminate their latest achievements, share best practices and plan for future activities on topics of common interest.

WP5: Management

The HiPEAC network is coordinated by Koen De Bosschere, Ghent University. The HiPEAC steering committee meets monthly, either physically or virtually via a conference call. HiPEAC has four staff members who discuss the progress of their tasks in a weekly meeting. Within the duration of the HiPEAC4 project, the network grew from 1739 to 1906 members (+10%). The number of companies grew from 83 to 113 (+36%). The community has been growing steadily.
The expected impacts are mostly on the community: reinforce and broaden Europe's strong position in low-power computing in traditional and new market segments by strengthening the technology competences of European suppliers and the academic community. HiPEAC's mission is to strengthen the community: by creating dissemination opportunities for projects and members, by steering the research in the community, by offering high quality training, by organizing effective networking events, by facilitating job mobility across Europe, by attracting non-European talent to Europe …

By defining a complete objective on community structuring with several tasks to facilitate the exchange of (i) information, (ii) people and (iii) knowledge between academia and industry, the HiPEAC support action contributes higher involvement of SMEs, both on the supply and the demand-side.

HiPEAC also contributes to the expected research/business impacts, not by carrying out research projects, but by steering them through its bi-annual vision, and by organizing inspiring keynote talks and training sessions.