Computational Physics Group

Organised by the IOP Computational Physics Group and the IOP Higher Education Group 

Date of event 14 April 2021. Location online.

The impact of COVID-19 on the higher education sector was immediately disruptive. However, university instructors of computational physics met these unexpected challenges head on, delivering complex content to students in innovative ways. Now, we have the opportunity to reflect on what has worked and what has not in order to strengthen our community’s ability to deliver world-class education to the next generation of computational physicists. Lessons Learned in Lockdown will bring together lecturers, instructors and higher education professionals who have been involved in teaching numerical or computational physics in the face of COVID-19 disruptions. Jointly hosted by the IOP Higher Education and Computational Physics groups, the event will serve as a forum to exchange experiences and discuss lessons learned, as well as identify opportunities to advance the ways we teach numerical techniques to physics students. This online event is scheduled for 14 April 2021. 

Call for abstracts:

Abstracts are requested for short talks, interactive workshops and posters presenting student work e.g. project work. Abstracts of a maximum of 250 words should be submitted online by 1 March 2021. 

Key Dates:

Abstract submission deadline:   1 March 2021
Registration deadline:                13 April 2021

For more information on the conference, please visit https://www.iopconferences.org/iop/1643/home 

The IoP had an inaugural Physics in the Spotlight event from 21st-25th October 2019, celebrating the move to their new head quarters in King’s Cross with events organised by many groups together. On the 24th of October the Computational Physics group (CPG) hosted a one-day meeting on machine learning applications in physics. This was in collaboration with the Particle Accelerator and Beam group, the Plasma Physics group and Polymer Physics group.

The plenary sessions were a sell-out, hitting the 140 capacity of the lecture theatre in the new venue, showing the appetite and interest in the field. With keynote speakers from the Alan Turing Institute, STFC’s Scientific Machine Learning group, and an ex-accelerator scientist turned FinTech Machine Learning consultant who refreshed us on the journey machine learning had taken since his work with it on ion beam spectroscopy a decade ago, there was a strong and varied programme on forefront techniques. After a short break this was followed up by talks from Jacqui Cole (Cambridge) and Aldo Glielmo, the winner of the CPG thesis prize.

The afternoon was split into two parallel sessions. This allowed us to explore developments more specific to each group interests. The CPG organized one with the plasma physics group and accelerator physics group getting together to understand commonalities in large facility design and data exploration. Presentations by Matt King and Hannah Kockelbergh and a panel discussion featuring Stephen Dann set the scene for a discussion session, which overall highlighted the need for cross community training to help those looking to exploit ML and data-centric methods for physics.

The second parallel session was organized with the Polymer Physics group and focused on machine including deep learning in soft and biological matter. Presentations related to Gaussian processes were given by Richard Graham (Nottingham) and Richard Clayton (Sheffield). Applications to 2D or 3D image data were by Alan Lowe (UCL), Rollo Moore and Ladislav Urban (NIHR); Dimitris Pinotsis (City/MIT) presentation was on network architectures.

The day also featured the launch of the IoP Journal ‘Machine Learning: Science and Technology’. Alongside the introduction to the scope of the journal, there was a cake cutting at the end of the day. Discussions continued over refreshments into the evening.

The organizing committee consisted of Jonathan Smith (CPG/PABG), Gavin Tabor (CPG), Bart Vorselaars (CPG), as well as Joao Cabral and Nigel Clarke (both Polymer PG) and Greg Daly (Plasma PG). Furthermore, David Dunning (PABG) was also helpful in finding some of the speakers.

Note: CCP2020 has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, CCP2021 will be held in Coventry. The new conference dates will be announced soon.

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to announce the 32nd Conference on Computational Physics that is scheduled to take place in Coventry, England, between the 2nd and 6th of August, 2020, and invite you to participate. It is the leading international conference in its area, covering all aspects of computational physics. In particular, the main topics are:

* statistical mechanics and complex systems
* soft matter, biophysics
* materials and nano-science
* fluid dynamics
* quantum many-body physics
* quantum computing
* lattice field theory
* astrophysics, gravitation, cosmology
* novel hardware and software
* computational physics education
* machine learning and algorithms
* geophysics and porous media

The scientific programme will consist of plenary lectures held mainly in the mornings and a program of parallel sessions in the afternoons with invited and contributed oral presentations, as well as a poster session.

PLENARY SPEAKERS

Dwight Barkley (U Warwick)
Gábor Csányi (U Cambridge)
Richard Brower* (Boston U)
Christine Davies (U Glasgow)
Claudia Draxl* (HU Berlin)
Annalisa Pillepich (MPA, Heidelberg)
Frank Pollmann (TU Munich)
Andrew Saxe (U Oxford)
Olga Shishkina (MPI-DS, Göttingen)
David Thirumalai (UT Austin)
Brigitta Whaley* (UC Berkeley)
Andy Woods* (U Cambridge)

(* to be confirmed)

REGISTRATION AND DEADLINES

Registration for participation and as well as the submission of contributions to the program are possible online at the conference website

https://ccp2020.complexity-coventry.org/registration.php

Registration is open until May 15, 2020.

FORMAT

The meeting is set to begin in the morning of Monday, August 3rd and ends in the late afternoon of Thursday, August 6. There will be a welcome reception and registration opportunity in the evening of August 2nd (Sunday).

There will be a social dinner on the evening of August 5th.

VISAS AND SUPPORT

Limited support is available for graduate students and participants from less
economically developed countries. Support requests can be submitted as part of the registration process until May 15.

Invitation letters for visa applications will be provided to registered participants. For details on visa applications, please consult the sources mentioned on the conference website.

ACCOMMODATION

Participants (apart from plenary speakers) are requested to arrange accommodation individually. There are a number of hotels nearby. Also, a limited number of discounted accommodation options in the university residences is available. For details please see the ‘travel’ section of the conference website.

CORONAVIRUS

The organizers are of course aware of the uncertainties surrounding the pandemic spread of coronavirus, and we are monitoring the situation closely.  Should it be required to move or cancel the event, all registration fees will be fully refunded. We strive to take a final decision no later than June 2 to avoid
participants losing money through travel and accommodation bookings or visa applications.

INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD

Joan Adler, Technion
Nithaya Chetty, Wits U, Johannesburg
Mei-Yin Chou, Academia Sinica
Bismarck Vaz da Costa, UFMG, Belo Horizonte
Yuan Ping Feng, NUS, Singapore
Suklyun Hong, Sejong U
Andrew Horsfield, Imperial
Trevis Humble, ORNL
Barry Klein, UC Davies
Georg Kresse, U Vienna
David Landau, UGA, Athens
Hai-Qing Lin, CSRC, Beijing
Richard Liska, TU Prague
Priya Mahadevan, Bose Centre, Kolkata
Regina Maphanga, U Limpopo
Sitangshu Bikas Santra, IIT Guwahati
Lev Shchur, Landau Institute
Laurette Tuckerman, ESPCI
Roser Valentí, U Frankfurt
Daniel Vizman, UVT, Timisoara
Rodolphe Vuilleumier, ENS, Paris
Xiaoqun Wang, SJTU, Shanghai
Renata Wentzcovitch, Columbia U
Junyi Zhu, CU Hong Kong

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

The main responsibility for the scientific program rests with the program committee

Statistical mechanics and complex systems:
Wolfhard Janke, U Leipzig (chair)

Soft matter, biophysics:
Julia Yeomans, U Oxford (chair)
Anna Balazs, U Pittsburgh
Changbong Hyeon, KIAS, Seoul

Materials and nano-science:
Luca Ghiringhelli, FHI, Berlin (chair)
Francesca Baletto, King’s College London
Silvana Botti, U Jena
Bryan Goldsmith, U Michigan, Ann Arbor
James Kermode, U Warwick
Sergey Levchenko, Skolkovo, Moscow

Fluid dynamics:
Greg Sheard, Monash (chair)
Bruno Carmo, U Sao Paulo
Wisam Al Saadi, Australian College of Kuwait

Quantum many-body physics:
Anders Sandvik, Boston U (chair)
Sylvain Capponi, U Toulouse
Kedar Damle, TIFR Mumbai
Chisa Hotta, U Tokyo
Shiwei Zhang, Flatiron Institute

Quantum computing:
Stephen Jordan, Microsoft (chair)
David Gosset, U Waterloo
Peter Love, Tufts U
Bei Zeng, U Guelph

Lattice field theory:
Constantina Alexandrou, Cyprus Institute (chair)
Gert Aarts, Swansea
Karl Jansen, DESY Zeuthen
Aida X. El-Khadra, U Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Astrophysics, gravitation, cosmology:
Richard Bower, U Durham (chair)
Debora Sijacki, U Cambridge
Andrew Wetzel, UC Davis

Novel hardware and software:
Massimo Bernaschi, NRC, Rome (chair)
Valeri Halyo, U Princeton
Victor Martin-Mayor, U Complutense, Madrid

Computational physics education:
Joan Adler, Technion (chair)
Amy Graves, Swarthmore College

Machine learning and algorithms:
Lenka Zdeborova, Paris (chair)
Chiara Cammarota, King’s College London
Alexander Hartmann, U Oldenburg
Ehsan Katami, San Jose State U
Maria Schuld, KwaZulu-Natal
Pan Zhang, CAS, Beijing

Geophysics and porous media:
Steve Tobias, U Leeds (chair)
Emannuel Dormy, CNRS, Paris
Geoff Vallis, U Exeter

LOCAL ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Damien Foster
Nikolaos G. Fytas
Charo del Genio
Ran Holtzman
Susanne Horn
Ralph Kenna
Abhishek Kumar
Alban Potherat
Martin Weigel (chair)
Taras Yavors’kii

CCP2020
Centre for Fluid and Complex Systems
Faculty for Engineering, Computing and Mathematics
Coventry University
Coventry CV1 5FB
England

website: https://ccp2020.complexity-coventry.org/
e-mail: ccp2020@coventry.ac.uk

Machine Learning Day – Part of Physics in the Spotlight
Institute of Physics, London
Thursday 24 October 2019, 9.30-17.00

Organised by the IOP Computational Physics Group, IOP Polymer Physics Group, IOP Particle Accelerators and Beams Group and IOP Plasma Physics Group

We are pleased to announce a one-day event on Machine Learning in Physics. The meeting will take place on Thursday 24 October at the IOP, near King’s Cross in London, and is part of the Physics in the Spotlight week.

A general session is planned for the morning with two parallel focus sessions running in the afternoon: Machine Learning in soft and biological matter, and Machine learning in plasma and accelerator physics.

There are still slots available for contributed talks. Please email j.cabral@imperial.ac.uk for contributions related to Machine learning in soft matter, and Jonathan.smith@stfc.ac.uk for any other contributions. Deadline for contributions is the 3 October 2019.

Registration for the event is free. Please visit http://spotlight2019.iopconfs.org more information and to book your place.

Preliminary program of confirmed invited speakers:

Introduction to machine learning in physics with applications (morning session)
Armando Vieira – Hazy
Keith Butler – STFC
Jacqui Cole – University of Cambridge/Rutherford
Aldo Glielmo – KCL
TBC – Alan Turing Institute

Machine learning in soft & biological matter (afternoon session I)
Richard Graham – University of Nottingham
Alan Lowe – UCL
Richard Clayton – University of Sheffield

Machine learning in accelerator physics and plasma physics (afternoon session II)
Stephen Dann – Lancaster University/STFC
Tom Holmes – University of Sheffield

This joint meeting by the Open Source (OSSG) and Fortran (FSG) specialist groups of the BCS on Open Source Fortran will include 3 talks: on ARMflang, GCC and HPC.

The event is free to attend, but please register here.