Early Science Program

ALCF Aurora Early Science Program is underway

Aurora ESP Postdoctoral Opportunities!

Join us in launching the first scientific calculations on our next-generation leadership system, Aurora. We are looking for motivated candidates for two-year ALCF postdoctoral appointments working with our ten Aurora ESP projects. You'll find brief descriptions of the positions, and links for applying, on our Careers page.

As part of the process of bringing a new supercomputer into production, the ALCF hosts the Early Science Program (ESP) to ensure its next-generation systems are ready to hit the ground running. The intent of the ESP is to use the critical pre-production time period to prepare key applications for the architecture and scale of a new supercomputer, and to solidify libraries and infrastructure to pave the way for other production applications to run on the system. In addition to fostering application readiness, the ESP allows researchers to pursue innovative computational science projects not possible on today’s leadership-class supercomputers.

The ALCF’s current ESP has two phases with two separate calls for proposals. The first phase is for Theta, an early production system based on Intel’s second-generation Xeon Phi processor. Slated for delivery in late 2016, Theta will serve as a bridge between the ALCF’s current system, Mira, and the next leadership-class supercomputer, Aurora, which is scheduled for delivery in 2018. The Theta ESP call for proposals was open from April 22 - May 22, 2015, and projects were selected in July 2015. For details, see the Theta ESP project announcement.

The second phase of the ESP is for Aurora, a fully integrated system featuring multiple Intel HPC technologies, including third-generation Xeon Phi processors, second-generation Omni-Path, a powerful memory architecture and advanced file system storage and software. The call for proposals for the Aurora ESP is was open from July 6 to September 2, 2016. We selected 10 projects, which will be supported by ALCF and vendor staff, as well as a funded ALCF postdoc. On January 30, 2016, we announced the Aurora ESP projects.

The Theta and Aurora Early Science Programs are based on the ALCF's highly successful Mira ESP.