Special Session of EuroPVM/MPI 2003: Current Trends in Numerical Simulation for Parallel Engineering Environments ParSim 2003

Abstract

Simulating practical problems in engineering disciplines has become a key field for the use of parallel programming environments. Remarkable progress in both CPU power and network technology has been paralleled by developments in numerical simulation and software integration resulting in the support for a large variety of engineering applications. Besides these traditional approaches for parallel simulation and their constant improvement, the appearance of new paradigms like Computational Grids or E-Services has introduced new opportunities and challenges for parallel computation in the field of engineering.

Following the successful introduction of ParSim as a special session at EuroPVM/MPI in 2002, ParSim continues to bring together scientists from both the engineering disciplines and computer science. It provides a forum to discuss current trends in parallel simulation from both perspectives and offers the opportunity to foster cooperations across disciplines. The EuroPVM/MPI conference series, as one of Europe’s prime events in parallel computation, serves as an ideal surrounding for this special session. This combination enables the participants to present and discuss their work within the scope of both the session and the host conference.

This year, 15 papers were submitted to ParSim and we selected six of them to be included in the proceedings and to be presented at the special session. These papers come from different backgrounds and cover both specific simulation applications and general frameworks for the efficient execution of parallel simulations. This selection thereby represents the intended mix between specific problems and requirements given with particular applications or environments and general solutions to cope with them. We are confident that this resulted in an attractive program and we hope that this session will be an informal setting for lively discussions.

Several people contributed to this event. Thanks go to Jack Dongarra, the EuroPVM/MPI general chair, and to Domenico Laforenza and Salvatore Orlando, the PC chairs, for giving us the opportunity to continue the ParSim series at EuroPVM/MPI 2003. We would also like to thank the numerous reviewers, who provided us with their reviews in less than a week and thereby helped us to maintain the tight schedule. Last, but certainly not least, we would like to thank all those who took the time to submit papers and hence made this event possible in the first place.

We hope this session will fulfill its purpose to encourage interdisciplinary cooperation between computer scientists and engineers in the various application disciplines, and we hope ParSim will continue to develop into a long and successful tradition in the context of EuroPVM/MPI.