Scientific Big Data Analysis for the European XFEL

On 23^rd Octo­ber, Pro­fes­sor Robert Feiden­han­s’l, Exe­cu­tive Direc­tor of Euro­pean XFEL GmbH and Pro­fes­sor Krzysz­tof Kurek, NCBJ Direc­tor Gene­ral have signed an adden­dum to the NCBJ-XFEL agre­ement, as well as an agre­ement on imple­men­ting the Scien­ti­fic Big Data Ana­ly­sis pro­ject. The XFEL dele­ga­tion also met with the poten­tial Polish users of the laser.

The visit of the mana­ge­ment board of Eu-XFEL Was an oppor­tu­nity to talk about coope­ra­tion between the insti­tu­tions and to define the possi­bi­li­ties and needs of joint pro­jects, pri­ma­rily regar­ding the pro­ces­sing of data gene­ra­ted during scien­ti­fic expe­ri­ments on free elec­tron laser in Ham­burg.

The Świerk Com­pu­ting Cen­ter is one of the lar­gest IT cen­ters in Poland, which has the abi­lity to pro­cess such a large amo­unt of data as those that have been cre­ated in expe­ri­ments on the Euro­pean X-ray Free Elec­tron Laser for over 2 years. CIŚ has expe­rience in ope­ra­tions on data from large expe­ri­ments. The cen­ter, which has Tier-2 node sta­tus, is one of the main pla­ces for col­lec­ting and pro­ces­sing data for the LHCb detec­tor – one of the great expe­ri­ments car­ried out at the Large Hadron Col­li­der at CERN. These com­pe­ten­ces and expe­rience will soon be also use­ful for XFEL users, inc­lu­ding Polish scien­ti­sts.

After the cere­mony of signing the agre­ement with NCBJ, in the second part of its visit to War­saw, the mana­ge­ment board of Eu-XFEL met with mem­bers of the XFEL-Pol­ska Con­sor­tium and Polish users of XFEL sour­ces. Eu-XFEL employ­ees pre­sen­ted measu­re­ment capa­bi­li­ties using XFEL sour­ces, in par­ti­cu­lar the most modern one, recen­tly com­mis­sio­ned in Ham­burg. Scien­ti­sts from the Faculty of Phy­sics PW, IFJ PAN, Faculty of Phy­sics UAM, AGH and the Faculty of Che­mi­stry of the Uni­ver­sity of War­saw pre­sen­ted their plans for coope­ra­tion or their ongo­ing work with Eu-XFEL. Among others, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor Jerzy Anto­no­wicz from the Faculty of Phy­sics of the War­saw Uni­ver­sity of Tech­no­logy told about the results of the latest rese­arch led by Polish scien­ti­sts using Eu-XFEL, regar­ding ultra­fast struc­tu­ral chan­ges as a result of mel­ting and cry­stal­li­za­tion of metals. Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor Jakub Szla­chetko pre­sen­ted the topics of rese­arch using XFEL sour­ces con­duc­ted at the IFJ PAN, inc­lu­ding those regar­ding DNA destruc­tion and repair mecha­ni­sms, or non­li­near pro­ces­ses in ato­mic phy­sics.

„The Euro­pean XFEL is a uni­que source of strong, ultra-short pul­ses of cohe­rent X-rays, the use of which opens new measu­re­ment possi­bi­li­ties in many disci­pli­nes of science and tech­no­logy, which are affec­ting our daily lives, inc­lu­ding medi­cine, phar­ma­co­logy, che­mi­stry, mate­rials science, nano­tech­no­logy, energy and elec­tro­nics” – said Ryszard Sobie­raj­ski, PhD, from Insti­tute of Phy­sics of the Polish Aca­demy of Scien­ces, which is the leader of the XFEL-Pol­ska Scien­ti­fic and Rese­arch Con­sor­tium, brin­ging toge­ther 28 Polish insti­tu­tions. „The con­sor­tium ena­bles the exchange of expe­rien­ces between scien­ti­sts alre­ady using radia­tion from XFEL sour­ces and their new users. In the near future, the num­ber of expe­ri­ments per­for­med on the XFEL source in Ham­burg will be signi­fi­can­tly incre­ased. To be able to fully use the offe­red scien­ti­fic poten­tial, it is neces­sary to pre­pare Polish scien­ti­fic staff for this task, for exam­ple thro­ugh meeting like this one. „

In the after­noon, during the third part of the visit, the dele­ga­tion of XFEL GmbH met with Mate­usz Gaczyń­ski – Deputy Direc­tor of the Depart­ment of Inno­va­tion and Deve­lop­ment of the Mini­stry of Science and Higher Edu­ca­tion, in the pre­sence of repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of the NCBJ. Rese­ar­chers pre­sen­ted plans for fur­ther coope­ra­tion with NCBJ in the field of ana­ly­sis of expe­ri­men­tal data from the XFEL rese­arch infra­struc­ture and con­duc­ted talks aimed at expla­ining the con­di­tions for obta­ining sup­port from the Mini­ster’s Pro­gram „Inter­na­tio­nal Co-finan­ced Pro­jects”, inc­lu­ding coope­ra­tion with fore­ign insti­tu­tions regar­ding the use of large rese­arch infra­struc­tu­res.