ECMWF in Bologna 2020 - Panel discussion

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Palazzo Boncompagni| Bologna, Italy| 13 November 2018

Artist's impression of proposed new ECMWF data centre

Artist's impression of ECMWF's new data centre in Bologna, Italy. (Image: gmp von Gerkan, Marg & Partner)

Background

ECMWF’s new data centre is expected to become operational in Bologna, Italy, during 2020. This major project will see a former tobacco factory in the Tecnopolo di Bologna transformed into one of Europe’s most powerful supercomputing facilities that will help to push the limits of predictability in weather forecasting.

ECMWF and the Region Emilia-Romagna held a day of events on 13 November 2018 to celebrate progress made and look ahead to the opportunities for advancing computing and weather science that the new facilities will afford.

Panel discussion - Big data in weather prediction and in Emilia-Romagna: a vision for the future

Palazzo Boncompagni, Bologna

Palazzo Boncompagni, Bologna, where the panel discussion took place. (Image Copyright Palazzo)

The panel discussion at the Palazzo Boncompagni in Bologna offered the opportunity to engage with the key stakeholders making the project possible. Speakers addressed current themes in big data and numerical weather prediction, including:

  • How will ECMWF’s new data centre fit into the big data science landscape in the Emilia-Romagna region?
  • What is the role of big data science in European economic development at the regional level?
  • How can international collaboration help to deal with big data in weather and climate science?
  • What is the role of high-resolution global and regional ensemble forecasts (which inevitably involve big data) in predicting severe weather?
  • What are the main big data challenges in numerical weather prediction today, and can they be addressed by cloud computing?
  • How can new high-performance computing technologies help to meet today’s big data challenges in numerical weather prediction?

A video recording of the discussion is available.

Speakers

Patrizio Bianchi

Emilia-Romagna Regional Government Councillor for the coordination of European development policies, schools, vocational training, universities, research and work

Profile

Patrizio Bianchi is the Emilia-Romagna Regional Government Councillor for the coordination of European development policies, schools, vocational training, universities, research and work. He is an expert in economics and industrial policies and development and has published over 30 books and 200 scientific articles.

Fabio Fava

Full Professor of Industrial & Environmental Biotechnology and Deputy Rector for Industrial Research, Territorial Cooperation and Innovation at the University of Bologna, Italy

Profile

Fabio Fava is Full Professor of Industrial & Environmental Biotechnology and Deputy Rector for Industrial Research, Territorial Cooperation and Innovation at the University of Bologna. He is the Italian representative on a number of international committees, including the European Commission Horizon2020 Programme Committee European Bioeconomy Challenges: Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine, Maritime and Inland Water Research.

Antonio Navarra

President of the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), Lecce, Italy

Profile

Antonio Navarra is the President of the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change. He has been active in the investigation of the dynamical mechanisms that control climate on a global scale, with a special focus on the natural climatic variability of the atmosphere–ocean system on interannual to decadal or centennial scale.

Tiziana Paccagnella

Director of ARPAE-SIMC, the Hydro-Meteo-Climate Service of the Regional Environmental Agency of Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Profile

Tiziana Paccagnella is the Director of ARPAE-SIMC, the Hydro-Meteo-Climate Service of the Regional Environmental Agency of Emilia-Romagna in Italy. She leads the Regional Numerical Weather Prediction division at SIMC, whose activities also include marine and coastal modelling, and coastal defence and monitoring.

Martin Palkovič

Director of Computing, ECMWF

Profile

Martin Palkovič is Director of Computing at ECMWF. Before being appointed he established and managed the Czech National Supercomputing Centre and was responsible for building and operating the national HPC e-infrastructure and related R&D activities.

Florian Pappenberger

Director of Forecasts, ECMWF

Profile

Florian Pappenberger is Director of Forecasts at ECMWF. Florian has a scientific background in the forecasting of weather driven natural hazards including floods, droughts, windstorms, forest fires and impacts on human health.