TU Dortmund University bundles competencies in the fields of data science and simulation
In the natural, engineering and social sciences, dealing with large amounts of data is part of everyday life: scientists at TU Dortmund University have to record and analyze the results of large series of experiments or simulate several thousand scenarios. In order to bundle their strengths in the field of data science and simulation and to further develop them together, researchers from different faculties and areas of TU Dortmund University are now joining forces to generate and analyze (simulation) data: The new interdisciplinary research center "TU Dortmund - Center for Data Science and Simulation", DoDaS for short, was officially opened on April 18.
"At TU Dortmund University, cutting-edge research takes place not only within the faculties, but often across their boundaries," emphasized Rector Prof. Manfred Bayer. "Innovations are created when individual excellence is brought together and disciplinary boundaries are crossed. We are now making the successful collaborations and individual strengths in the fields of data science and simulation visible in DoDaS - within the university, but also with a view to the national and international research landscape." The new cross-faculty research center includes, in particular, mathematics, statistics, computer science, and natural sciences and engineering; other disciplines can be included upon request. In addition to the rectorate, around 100 scientists* as well as representatives of the city of Dortmund and the University Alliance Ruhr gathered for the ceremonial opening.
"In the new research center, we will bundle our special expertise in the field of data science. We will advance the joint research of various scientific disciplines and also jointly acquire third-party funding. In addition, we will further develop the data- and simulation-centered range of courses," explains Prof. Katja Ickstadt from the Faculty of Statistics. Together with Prof. Stefan Turek from the Faculty of Mathematics, she is the acting spokesperson for the new center. Data science plays a major role at TU Dortmund University: "Data, Models and Simulations for Shaping Our Future" is one of five profile areas of the university in which research achievements are made at an internationally outstanding level.
In addition, the future members of the new center will support scientists of all disciplines in data- and simulation-centered research questions - also with regard to infrastructure and central computing resources. Prof. Stefan Turek explains: "The simulation experts of TU Dortmund University will contribute their methodological basic research and expert support in the conception, analysis and realization of simulation methods and tools of scientific computing to the new center." DoDaS brings together two previous centers: the Dortmund Center for Scientific Computing (DoWiR) and the Dortmund Data Science Center (DoDSc).
Better simulations for flow problems and particle physics
A first project of the new center is dedicated to flow simulation on high-performance computers. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding an interdisciplinary joint project in which mathematicians from TU Dortmund University are playing a leading role. In the project "StroemungsRaum - Novel Exascale Architectures with Heterogeneous Hardware Components for Flow Simulations", researchers from Dortmund, Erlangen, Freiberg, Jülich and Cologne are developing novel CFD simulation methods based on the FEATFLOW software. This should enable future EXASCALE computers to be used more efficiently in the simulation, control and optimization of industry-relevant processes. Another BMBF project is concerned with AI-based simulation methods, with which the huge amounts of data in particle and astroparticle physics are to be evaluated more quickly and efficiently in the future. Physicists from TU Dortmund University are involved in the interdisciplinary joint project "Artificial Intelligence for the Fast Simulation of Scientific Data" (KISS).
To the center: https://dodas.tu-dortmund.de/
Contact persons for queries:
Faculty of Mathematics Prof. Stefan Turek Tel. 0231 755-3075 E-mail: stefan.turek@tu-dortmund.de
Faculty of Statistics Prof. Katja Ickstadt Tel. 0231 755-3111 E-Mail: katja.ickstadt@tu-dortmund.de
Rectorate Dr. Gunter Friedrich Tel. 0231 755-7556 E-mail: gunter.friedrich@tu-dortmund.de