# Presentation: 088607

## Summer School on Computational Materials ScienceProviding education on frontier research techniques 

- The two-week Summer School offers lectures by premier scientists and provides hands-on computer lab experience with key software, often led by the software developers themselves.
- Within the framework of selecting appropriate and diverse participants, the school is focused on 1) students and faculty at smaller state institutions, and 2) women and under-represented minorites.

- Thanks for letting my graduate student attend
- the summer school. He is just fantastically excited...
- I take it from conversations with him that the school
- was extremely helpful for his work. As a smaller
- university, UMBC simply cannot always provide
- graduate-level courses in theory, and therefore the
- 2006 summer school was just needed.
**       ****Dr. Susan K. Gregurick, Assistant Professor****  ***University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Chemistry*

**Summer School on ****Computational Materials Science***Providing education on frontier research techniques *

**WHY IT MATTERS:** The Summer Schools are a centralized place for learning new methods, speaking one-on-one with experts, and identifying potential collaborators. On a follow-up survey, 80% of respondents said they expect to have science-related discussions with another participant or instructor in the future.
- By distributing knowledge from large institutions to other universities, the School supplements the educational experience at smaller institutions and keeps a larger number of young researchers competitive. Scientists who cannot attend due to timing or space constraints can access the presenters’ slides and input/output computer files on the website.

## Diverse backgrounds enrich school experienceParticipants indicate that “meeting potential collaborators” is among the top benefits of attending summer schools. The School Committee chose participants to achieve variety and balance between: 

**Diverse backgrounds enrich school experience**Participants indicate that “meeting potential collaborators” is among the top benefits of attending summer schools. The School Committee chose participants to achieve variety and balance between:
-  Students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty
-  Small and large schools
-  Academic environments and national research labs
-  Domestic and international applicants
-  Different research groups
-  Primary area of study (chemistry and physics)

**Presentations by faculty participants**
- Two junior faculty participants gave invited talks about the teaching and research environments at their home institutions, the University of Jordan and Prairie View A&M University.
- _[Education and Research in Jordan, Challenges & Outlook](http://www.mcc.uiuc.edu/summerschool/2006/presentations/Hamad_2006_08_06.ppt)_** **(B. Hamad, .ppt)
- _[Nano](http://www.mcc.uiuc.edu/summerschool/2006/presentations/Fan_H_orig.pdf)__[-scale Modeling with Undergraduates](http://www.mcc.uiuc.edu/summerschool/2006/presentations/Fan_H_orig.pdf)_** **(H. Fan, .pdf)

## TOPIC & LOCATION

- The Summer School covered *ab initio* Molecular Dynamics Simulation Methods in Chemistry: the use and programming of high-performance computing, electronic structure calculations, and structural optimization.
- The Summer Schools are held at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus. This year’s School took place July 31–August 11, 2006.
**SPONSORS**
- •  National Science Foundation
- •  Materials Computation Center, UIUC
- •  National Center for Supercomputing Applications,    UIUC
- •  Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, UIUC
- •  Computational Science and Engineering Program,    UIUC
- The National Center for Supercomputing Applications provided the School with computing access, videography support, and meeting space (computer labs and lecture hall).
**WEBSITE**
- _[http://www.mcc.uiuc.edu/summerschool/2006/](http://www.mcc.uiuc.edu/summerschool/2006/)_

**INSTRUCTORS**
- •  Stefano Baroni, Sissa Trieste
- •  Brett Bode, Iowa State University
- •  Victor Batista, Yale University
- •  Thom Dunning, UIUC
- •  Marcus Elstner, University of Heidelberg
- •  Dave Ennis, Ohio Supercomputer Center
- •  Guido Fratesi, University of Milan
- •  Paolo Giannozzi, Scuola Normale Superiore
- •  Srinivasan Iyengar, Indiana University
- •  Axel Kohlmeyer, University of Pennsylvania
- •  Glenn Martyna, IBM
- •  Spiridoula Matsika, Temple University
- •  Nicola Marzari, MIT
- •  Lubos Mitas, North Carolina State University
- •  Jason Quenneville, Los Alamos National Lab
- •  Alejandro Strachan, Purdue University
**ORGANIZERS**
- • **AIMD:** T. Martínez, D. Ceperley, R. Martin, and D. Johnson (UIUC)
- • **Quantum–ESPRESSO:** N. Marzari (MIT) and P. Giannozzi (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, and DEMOCRITOS, Trieste)
- • **High-Performance Computing**: J. Kim (UIUC)