2017 Open House held at The University of Tokyo Kashiwa Campus

The FY2017 Open House for The University of Tokyo’s Kashiwa Campus was held on October 27 and 28, based on the theme of “Exploring the world of knowledge at Kashiwa.”
The Information Technology Center provided visits and guided tours of the Oakforest-PACS, the fastest supercomputer in Japan, experiences of the three-dimensional visualization system, a poster exhibition, and video presentation.
In the guided tour of the Oakforest-PACS system, visitors had the opportunity to observe the machine, while faculty members provided explanations about the background to the bringing in of the Oakforest-PACS system to the Information Technology Center, an overview of the facility, and the contents of research projects that are carried out using the supercomputer.
In the experience of the three-dimensional visualization system, videos simulating the relationship between the shape of a building and the intensity of building-induced wind were used to give participants a visual experience of the realistic analysis results with the help of 3D glasses.
The exclamations and cheers from the participants could even be heard outside the room. While it rained on October 28 (Saturday) due to the typhoon, the visits and guided tours of the Oakforest-PACS Supercomputer and the experience of the three-dimensional visualization system remained as successful as in the previous year.

[Number of participants over the two days]
Supercomputer visitors: 467 (down12 people compared to last year).
Day 1: 169 visitors, Day 2: 298 visitors
Of whom, guided tour participants: 181 (down 11 people compared to last year)
Day 1: 74 participants, Day 2: 107 participants
Experience of three-dimensional visualization system: 189 (up 26 people compared to last year)
Day 1: 77 participants, Day 2: 112 participants

In the operation of the guided tour and experience of the visualization system, we received the cooperation of the Center for Computational Sciences of the University of Tsukuba, which jointly operates the Joint Center for Advanced High Performance Computing (JCAHPC) together with the Information Technology Center, the University of Tokyo. We also received the cooperation of the Kashiwa City Hall and Nagareyama City Hall in publicizing the event on their websites and Facebook pages.

Scenes of the Oakforest-PACS guided tour

Scenes of participants experiencing the three-dimensional visualization system