Dynamical Systems Group

Description

 

Eixam is the high-performance parallel Dynamical Systems group of the Department of Mathematics at the UPC.

Eixam (the Catalan word for "swarm") is composed of

  • 11 Acer Altos R520 servers (nodes "chico"), each with two quad-core Intel Xeon processors at 2.0GHz and 8GB of RAM, for a total of 88 CPU.
  • 10 BladeCenter servers (nodes "harpo"), each with 16 Intel Xeon processors at 2.4GHz and 32GB of RAM, for a total of 160 CPU.
  • 10 BladeCenter servers (nodes "groucho"), each with 16 Intel Xeon processors at 2.4GHz and 32GB of RAM, for a total of 160 CPU.

The nodes are interconnected through a Gigabit Ethernet dedicated network, providing a total of 408 CPU.

Eixam is used for scientific computing by the  UPC Dynamical Systems group from the Department of Mathematics of the UPC. The following research projects are involved:

  • Dynamical Systems.
  • Hamiltonian systems.
  • Dissipative systems.
  • Celestial mechanics.
  • Mathematical neuroscience.
  • Astrodynamics, including spatial mission analysis and design.
  • Infinite-dimensional systems which can be reduced to finite-dimensional.
  • Partial Differential Equations. Nonlinear PDEs, fluid dynamics.
  • Geometry and Topology. Algebraic geometry computations

An essential point is the detailed study of invariant (stable and unstable) manifolds of various invariant objects (such as quasi-periodic orbits or Normally Hyperbolic Invariant Manifolds) and their relative position, as well as their dynamical implications. This is accomplished by means of both symbolic and numerical computations. All the software utilized for these applications is developed, analyzed and implemented by members of our research group. One of our main goals is to implement parallel numerical methods for our special-purpose computations. The whole group has also a large experience in applying these techniques to real life problems, like transfer of orbits and station keeping maneuvers in the analysis of several missions to ESA and NASA.

Moreover, we host a number of "invited" scientific research computations by people from outside our Department. This includes research projects in areas as diverse as

  • Astrodynamics.
  • Neuroscience.
  • Modeling and visualization in virtual reality.
  • Soft computing.
  • Numerical modeling and optimization.
  • Parallel algorithms.
  • Nonlinear fluid dynamics.
  • Statistics and applications.

Researchers from outside our Department may submit a proposal to request an allocation of cycles on our clusters. To submit a proposal to request an allocation, please contact

eixam.sistemes.dinamics at upc.edu

Finally, our cluster is catering not only basic research projects, but also strategic research projects from INTAS, NASA-JPL, ICREA and PROFIT.

Grants

From 2010 to 2014 the cluster was improved cofunded with the grant "infraestructuras científico-tecnológicas" UNPC08-4E-005 and with the MCyT/FEDER grant MTM2006-00478. Previously, Eixam was funded with several PEIR grants from the Generalitat de Catalunya. The clusters were only truly implemented after our Engineering school ETSEIB built a room for them and installed two industrial-grade air conditioning units.

Moreover, two research assistant positions were awarded to our research group: a PQS position by the CUR (Comissionat d'Universitats i Recerca) and co-funded by the UPC and our Department, which which was held by Pau Roldán, and a PTA position PTA2008-1693-P cofunded by the grant 2009-SGR-859 from the Generalitat de Catalunya.

Acknowledgements

Eixam was completely renovated by Albert Granados in 2015, who is the current administrator. This represented a big step moving from 32 to 408 processors.