[hpc-announce] PASC24: Call for Minisymposia, deadline 21 October 2023

[Robinson Tim]

==============================================================================
  
                             CALL FOR MINISYMPOSIA
                  Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing
                                    PASC24

                      ETH Zurich, HCI Campus Hönggerberg
                             Zurich - Switzerland
                               03-05 Jun 2024

                      https://pasc24.pasc-conference.org

              Deadline for Submitting an Expression of Interest: 
                         Oct 21, 2023 (no extensions)

==============================================================================

The Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing (PASC) invites minisymposium submissions for PASC24, co-sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and SIGHPC, which will be held at ETH Zurich, HCI Campus Hönggerberg, Switzerland, from June 03 to 05, 2024.

The PASC Conference series is an international and interdisciplinary platform for the exchange of knowledge in scientific computing and computational science with a strong focus on methods, tools, algorithms, application challenges, and novel techniques and usage of high performance computing.

The technical program of PASC24 is organized around the following scientific domains:

* Chemistry and Materials (incl. ceramics, metals, and polymers)
* Climate, Weather, and Earth Sciences (incl. solid earth dynamics)
* Applied Social Sciences and Humanities (incl. behavioral, economic, legal, political and business sciences, philosophy, languages, the arts, ethics in computing including climate impact of HPC, biases in machine learning, etc.)
* Engineering (incl. CFD, computational mechanics, computational engineering and materials, turbulent flow)
* Life Sciences (incl. biophysics, genomics, bioinformatics, systems biology, neuroscience, and computational biology)
* Physics (incl. astrophysics, cosmology, plasma modelling, and quantum information sciences)
* Computational Methods and Applied Mathematics

Proposals that emphasize the theme of PASC24 – "Synthesizing Applications Through Learning and Computing" – are particularly welcome. 

A minisymposium is a two-hour session of four 30-minute slots on a topic of current importance in computational science that showcases research related to domain science, applied mathematics, computer science and software engineering, and is an ideal platform for promoting interdisciplinary communication. 

The minisymposium submission for PASC24 is a two-stage process. The first stage is an expression of interest, which includes a description of the proposed minisymposium (abstract) and suggestions for possible speakers who are experts in their field(s). The expressions of interest will be reviewed by the Minisymposia and Posters Program Committee (https://pasc24.pasc-conference.org/about/organization/minisymposia-and-posters-program-committee). A selection of submissions will be invited to submit a full proposal.

The review process will consider the relevance and timeliness of the proposal topic as well as overall program balance.

The second stage, the full proposal, should include an extended abstract along with the names of possible speakers and presentation titles for four 30-minute presentation slots (typically, these slots are 25-minute talks with 5 minutes for questions). The minisymposium organizer is permitted to give one of the four presentations themself. If desired, the fourth 30-minute slot could be a panel discussion or open discussion forum. 

The organizer of a minisymposium takes an "active chair" role in their session – that is, they should present a brief overview of the themes of the minisymposium and the state of the art, introduce the speakers and their topics, and facilitate a lively and interactive discussion amongst the speakers and audience throughout the session.
 
SUBMISSION AND REVIEW PROCESS

In order to be allowed to submit a full proposal, minisymposium organizers must first submit an expression of interest:

* Title
* Scientific domain(s): A primary domain and optionally additional domains.
* Organizer details: Names and contact details of organizers (up to three).
* Abstract: Description of the minisymposium (up to 500 words), including suggestions for topics and speakers. 
* Diversity and Inclusivity: A statement on how you have addressed issues of diversity and inclusivity in proposing speakers.

Following the evaluation of the expressions of interest, organizers may be invited to submit a full proposal: 

* Title
* Scientific domain(s): A primary domain and optionally additional domains.
* Organizer details: Full names and contact details of organizers (up to three).
* Presenter details: Full names and contact details of four proposed speakers (three if the minisymposium proposal includes a discussion panel) and proposed titles for their presentations.
* Extended abstract: A description of the minisymposium that outlines the scope, describes the problems being addressed and their importance, and discusses current directions of research and methods being developed to solve these problems (up to 800 words).
* Abstract for publication: A short abstract for publication in the conference program (no more than 200 words). 
* Diversity and Inclusivity: A statement on how you have addressed issues of diversity and inclusivity in proposing speakers. 

If the proposal is accepted then presentation titles and abstracts (200 words) will be requested from each speaker.

The expressions of interest and full proposals will be reviewed based on the following criteria:

* The work should be of significant current interest to the given scientific domain, and ideally, have potential application to other scientific domains.
* Research should be based on state-of-the-art numerical methods.
* The proposal should include speakers from multiple institutions and/or countries, and be designed such that the speakers bring a range of different perspectives and views to the topic.
* The proposal should consider diversity - including women and other underrepresented groups.
* Preference may be given to proposals that address the theme of PASC24: Synthesizing Applications Through Learning and Computing 

Proposals must be submitted through the PASC24 online submission portal (https://submissions.pasc-conference.org).

SUBMISSION DEADLINES

* 21 Oct 2023: Deadline for expressions of interest (no extensions)
* 22 Nov 2023: Decision notifications (invitations to submit full proposals)
* 17 Dec 2023: Deadline for full proposals (no extensions)
* 02 Feb 2024: Acceptance notifications 
* 06 Mar 2024: Deadline for abstracts from presenting speakers 

Deadlines correspond to anywhere on earth ('AoE' or 'UTC-12').

CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION TERMS

Designated presenters may be changed closer to the event according to circumstances.

Please note that PASC24 is unable to reimburse the expenses or waive the registration fees of organizers and speakers. Organizers and speakers must register for the conference and are subject to the corresponding registration fees.

MINISYMPOSIA AND POSTERS PROGRAM COMMITTEE   

Chairs

* Siddhartha Mishra (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
* Kate Evans (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US)

Scientific Committee

* Matej Praprotnik (National Institute of Chemistry, Slovenia)
* Mario Morales (Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain)
* Tobias Weigel (DKRZ, Germany)
* Nicola Ferrier (Argonne National Laboratory, US)
* Hatem Ltaief (KAUST, Saudi Arabia)
* Michael Mahoney (UC Berkeley and LBL, US)
* Mathieu Luisier (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
* Felix Kubler (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
* Jibonananda Sanyal (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, US)
* Caroline Jay (The University of Manchester, UK)
* Yan Liu (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US)
* Marc Baaden (CNRS, France)
* Luigi del Debbio (University of Edinburgh, UK)
* Roger Käppeli (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
* Erik Draeger (Lawrence Livermore National Lab, US)


Questions regarding the submission and reviewing process can be addressed to info at pasc-conference.org.