EURO CC: Italian Competence Center

The Italian National Competence Center within the EuroCC project is aimed at supporting the activities on high performance computing (HPC), High Performance Data Analytics (HPDA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), for the benefit of companies, with particular regard to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMes).

More in detail the competence centre is funnelling the know-how and skills of Research in training and knowledge-transfer actions that are focused on specific and concrete needs of the business community, in collaboration with the associations representing the different business categories.

EuroCC comprises 33 National Competence Centers (NCCs) coordinated by the European project  Castiel. The ultimate goal is to gain an overall picture at the European level, highlighting the specific competences on HPC, HPDA, and on  AI being available for the economy.

This will enable the activation of training and twinning programs among the NCCs, so as to share experiences, achievements, success stories and international cooperations to serve the companies and the regions.

The Italian NCC is powered by CINECA with the collaboration of Associazione Big Data, Bi-Rex, Eni, Dompè and Leonardo.

The actions of the Italian NCC are oriented in three main directions as described hereinafter.

INDUSTRY

The main objective of the Italian competence center is to address the need of companies to learn how and when to use enabling technologies such as HPC, HPDA e IA in order to initiate or accelerate their innovation and digital transformation processes.

To this regard the Italian CC is mapping the available competences at the national level as well as the needs of businesses, with specific focus on SMEs.

Moreover, it will create a pilot program made up of two calls. Selected projects will count on supercomputing hours and consultancy on how to employ the resources at best.

TRAINING

The training is aimed at satisfying the training needs and missing skills of companies in the aforementioned sectors.
Three training courses will be carried out for companies:

1. “Curiosity and Interest”: first cognitive approach on HPC, HPDA and AI technologies
2. "High performance innovaton": aims to provide company personnel with skills on the technologies to be applied in the innovation processes of services and products
3. Fieldwork:: internship program dedicated to young people to develop skills on the issues of the competence center

The learning path, which will represent the first approach to technology, will be carried out in collaboration with other training institutions, even within existing paths.
The courses aimed at satisfying training needs, on the other hand, will be created according to the needs that emerged from the national mapping of skills or from specific courses created in agreement with the companies that will be protagonists of the innovation projects.
The internship program will allow young graduates or PhDs to deepen their knowledge of HPC / Big data / AI technologies by working on the projects developed within the competence center.

DISSEMINATION

The competence center will implement an awareness campaign on the adoption of HPC technologies by companies, especially by SMEs, through means of:

1. Events and online publication of activities & achievements.
2. The creation of industrial success paths in the employment of HPC, AI and big data technologies to create success stories that can be inspirational for other companies.