October 8, 2017: An academic delegation from BSC, Spain, consisting of Prof. Mateo Valero, Manager, Prof. Fabrizio Gagliardi, Senior Strategy Advisor, and Prof. Osman Unsal, Manager of Computer Architecture for Parallel Paradigms Group, paid a visit to Sharif. Dr. Movaghar, Dean of International Affairs, Dr. Rabiee, Chair of SUT’s Advanced Information and Communication Technology Research Center (AICT), and Dr. Asadi, Professor at Computer Engineering Department, played host to the delegation.
After the introduction of SUT and BSC by Dr. Movaghar and Dr. Valero, the parties discussed the possible lines of cooperation. Student and faculty exchange programs, sabbaticals, and dual degree programs were among the discussed topics. As Dr. Movaghar put it, since Sharif absorbs the best minds of Iran, such lines of cooperation would be beneficial to both sides. Following the meeting, joint projects between Sharif and BSC in important areas such as water management, air pollution, and supercomputation, were discussed by the participants. As Dr. Gagliardi stated, BSC is engaged in many projects encompassing such wide topics as modelling health, air, and water issues. Therefore, SUT and BSC cooperation need not be limited to any specific field.
Finally, the parties decided to sign an MoU in the near future. This MoU would be signed between SUT and Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) which houses Barcelona Supercomputing Center. Moreover, Prof. Valero warmly invited SUT’s professors to pay a visit to BSC in a near future to determine the lines of collaborations more specifically.
After this meeting, the delegation visited SUT’s Department of Computer Engineering as well and had a meeting with the professors and officials of this department.
It is worth mentioning that BSC is a prestigious international center which is ranked 13th in the world in 2017.
