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USC-C General Assembly - Trieste

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Trieste - Savoia Excelsior Palace

Trieste - Savoia Excelsior Palace
Description

Sold-out in-person participation! Registrations permitted only remotely.

The second USC-C General Assembly is here! 

The medium-long term objective of this USC is of contributing and facilitating the sharing of competences and skills present in the INAF  in the various ICT areas, starting from data, towards hardware, software and networks  architectures and infrastructures, in order to grow a IT ecosystem around the research and development in astronomy and astrophysics. The final aim of all of that being the support, for the next few decades, of the very high competitiveness of the members of INAF in the international arena. 

The Assembly will offer again a great opportunity to meet all INAF people involved in the different thematics connected to the data and computing technologies, affecting the whole data life cycle.  In fact, the meeting targets all INAF people working in technology for the research, development and innovation in astronomy and astrophysics, including data management and archives, computation, facilities controls and operation, data centers and software tools, networks and hardware, AI techniques/technologies, quantum computing and the transversal fields.

Moreover, the meeting will also be the occasion to meet people of the INAF structures involved in the design, deployment, management and support of the digital infrastructures, tools and services for the whole personnel.

Furthermore, the Assembly will host a series of parallel sessions dedicated to administrative staff, focused on organizational topics, budgeting, and in general on the digitalisation of public administrations and on the challenges related to the development of new management systems, and the use of those already acquired.

The assembly will give opportunities to enforce the expertise and competences (also through the offerings of specific training sessions),  to disseminate experiences, activities and best practises around common needs and problems, and to promote discussions in the several thematics stream among all the personnel involved in INAF. This could help the establishment or consolidation of collaborations and facilitate the information exchange. 

Finally, in this occasion we had choosen a scenografic location very close to the Trieste Astronomical Observatory, so we could benefit of the closeness of this INAF Structure as space and technical support for the success of the training, splinter sessions and parallel events. The particular location could promote the "team-up" action among all the people working or interested in specific fields, and also allows for professional development; in this regard, participation in the entire week is strongly encouraged.

We invite the participants to the submission of abstracts in any of the themes. The deadline for abstract submission is 15 February 2026. Acceptance of the abstract will be communicated by 27 February 2026.

Thanks to the support of USC-C, there is no registration fee for INAF personnel.

Obviously, the participants will have to take care of all the other costs. In particular, please note that booking of the accomodation at the venue of the Assembly must be done individually (and independently from the registration) following the instructions reported at the menu "Logistic" on the left side of this page. The deadline for the booking of the accomodation  at the venue of the Assembly (and at the agreed price, see Logistics menu for details) is 29 January  2026, whereas the registration by REMOTE will remain open until 06 March 2026. The "in presence" participation is SOLD-OUT!!

 

Registration
INAF - USC-C General Assembly Registration Form
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Participants
315 View full list
  • Monday 9 March
    • Registration Excelsior Palace Savoia

      Excelsior Palace Savoia
    • General: Welcome and Opening Sala Tergeste e Sala Zodiaco (Savoia Excelsior Palace)

      Sala Tergeste e Sala Zodiaco

      Savoia Excelsior Palace
      • 1
        Welcome
      • 2
        Opening and program description
        Speaker: Andrea Possenti (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
        Intro_GeneralAssembly.pdf
      • 3
        Schedule and Logistics
        Speaker: Cristina Knapic (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
        Logistics
      • 4
        Regolamento Incarichi di Ricerca e Incarichi Post-Doc
        Speaker: Dr Fabrizio Fiore (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
      • 5
        SID - Updates on Google license
        Speakers: Marco Baldini (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)), Stefano Giovannini (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
        Licenze google ICT Trieste 2026.pdf
    • 16:00
      Coffee break + Group Picture
    • Artificial Intelligence: AI and Its Declinations Sala Tergeste e Sala Zodiaco (Savoia Excelsior Palace)

      Sala Tergeste e Sala Zodiaco

      Savoia Excelsior Palace
      • 6
        Generative AI for Administration (Dott. G. Telesio)

        Generative AI for Administration (Dott. G. Telesio)

      • 7
        Generative AI Working group (Dott. G. Capasso)

        Generative AI Working group (Dott. G. Capasso)

        260309 - USC-C.pptx
    • 19:00
      Caffè degli Specchi - 1
  • Tuesday 10 March
    • Amministrazione: PIAO INAF 2026 Sala Imperatore - I° Piano (Savoia Excelsior Palace)

      Sala Imperatore - I° Piano

      Savoia Excelsior Palace
    • USC-C: Overview, sectors and highlights
    • 11:00
      Coffee break
    • Amministrazione Sala Imperatore - I° Piano (Savoia Excelsior Palace)

      Sala Imperatore - I° Piano

      Savoia Excelsior Palace
      • 20
        Trasparenza ed anticorruzione (Dott.ssa V. Saura)

        Trasparenza ed anticorruzione (Dott.ssa V. Saura)

      • 21
        Piattaforma Zenit (Vito Giacalone - Amedeo Petrella - Barbara Neri )

        Piattaforma Zenit (Vito Giacalone - Amedeo Petrella - Barbara Neri )

        Formazione.pptx
    • Artificial Intelligence
      • 22
        Local and Specialized AI Infrastructure for Next-Generation Astronomical Workflows

        "The exponential growth of astronomical datasets, driven by next-generation observatories such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), demands a paradigm shift in how the community approaches data analysis and scientific workflows. Artificial intelligence, and large language models (LLMs) in particular, are emerging as transformative tools in this landscape. Here we describe the deployment of a local AI infrastructure based on five NVIDIA GB10 Grace-Blackwell Superchip nodes, each equipped with 128 GB of unified memory, designed to serve a research community with domain-specific AI capabilities while preserving full data sovereignty.
        Our setup runs two classes of specialized open-weight models: AstroSage, a Llama-3.1-based LLM fine-tuned on the complete corpus of astronomical literature and achieving state-of-the-art performance on astronomy benchmarks — surpassing frontier proprietary models at a fraction of the inference cost — and Qwen3-Coder, a Mixture-of-Experts architecture optimized for agentic coding tasks. This dual-model approach reflects the complementary nature of scientific work: deep domain reasoning on one side, and automated code generation and pipeline management on the other.
        Looking ahead, we argue that agentic AI workflows will become the dominant paradigm for managing complex astronomical pipelines. Tasks such as automated flagging, calibration, imaging, and source extraction in radio astronomy — exemplified by SKA data reduction pipelines — are natural candidates for LLM-driven agents capable of orchestrating multi-step processes, recovering from failures, and adapting to heterogeneous data conditions. Local, specialized infrastructure of the kind described here will be essential to support such workflows in a reproducible, resource-efficient, and privacy-preserving manner."

        Speaker: Giovanni Lacopo (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
        Presentazione_USCC_last.pptx.pdf
      • 23
        GenAI at INAF: How Researchers are Using AI and What They Need – Results from the 2025 Survey
        Speaker: Alessandro Cabras (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
        GenAI at INAF- Survey.pdf
      • 24
        Learning the Faint Radio Sky: A Deep Ensemble Framework for Diffuse Surface-Brightness Inference
        Speaker: Nicoletta Sanvitale (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) - Istituto di Radioastronomia)
        Sanvitale_USC-C_2026.pdf
    • 13:00
      Light Lunch
    • Amministrazione: Economico Patrimoniale e incentivi tecnici Sala Imperatore - I° Piano (Savoia Excelsior Palace)

      Sala Imperatore - I° Piano

      Savoia Excelsior Palace
    • Artificial Intelligence: HPC
      • 28
        The PINOCCHIO ecosystem
        Speaker: Pierluigi Monaco (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
        Pierluigi_Monaco
      • 29
        Three years of runs at the HPC Cluster at OAC: statistics and learned lessons
        Speaker: Mariano Muscas (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
        PresentMarianoMuscasOAC.pdf
      • 30
        An end-to-end HPC workflow for 3D RMHD jet simulations and GRB afterglow synthesis
        Speaker: Ms Emma Dreas (SISSA - Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati)
        uscc_Dreas.pdf
      • 31
        The Cosmological SImulation Code OpenGadget3

        We present the TreePM+SPH/MFM code OpenGadget3, developed by OATS, UniTS and LMU that will be publicly released in its full-feature version in June 2026.
        We will get through the code structure and the physical modules it offers in a cosmological context, among which the gravity solver, the hydrodynamics with either SPH or MFM, the metal-dependent cooling with cosmological UV background, non-equilibrium chemistry and low-temperature molecular cooling, the stellar evolution and feedback (both energetic and chemical), black holes formation, accretion and feedback, and cosmic rays, to name a few.

        Speaker: Luca Tornatore (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
        dfrogin_250x.mov
        The Public Release of OPENGADGET3.pdf
      • 32
        Round table - Discussion AI/HPC
    • Training: VATES VMS - European Open-source server solutions Sala Margherita Hack (OATs - Castello Basevi)

      Sala Margherita Hack

      OATs - Castello Basevi

      via G.B. Tiepolo 11
    • 16:00
      Coffee break
    • Amministrazione: Sfide Operative Sala Imperatore - I° Piano (Savoia Excelsior Palace)

      Sala Imperatore - I° Piano

      Savoia Excelsior Palace
      • 33
        Messa a fuoco delle sfide operative - Analisi di alcune criticità (Mediatore Dott.ssa S.Donati) (Interlocutore DG)

        Messa a fuoco delle sfide operative operative - Analisi di alcune criticità (Mediatore Dott.ssa S.Donati) (Interlocutore DG)

    • Quantum Computing
    • Training: VATES VMS - European Open-source server solutions Sala Margherita Hack (OATs - Castello Basevi)

      Sala Margherita Hack

      OATs - Castello Basevi

      via via G.B. Tiepolo 11
    • 18:45
      Serbian- Orthodox Church - 1
    • 20:30
      Social Dinner
  • Wednesday 11 March
  • Thursday 12 March
    • Data Analysis and Visualization
      • 72
        VisIVO Interactive High Performance Visualization
        Speaker: Nicola Tuccari (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
        Tuccari - VisIVO Interactive.pdf
      • 73
        VisIVO Visual Analytics: Recent Updates and New Features
        Speaker: Giuseppe Tudisco (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
        26.03-usc-c.pdf
      • 74
        The gPLUTO code for astrophysical plasmas
        Speaker: Agnese Costa (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
        gpluto trieste2026.pdf
    • Training: Proxmox - Open-source server solutions M. Hack (OATs)

      M. Hack

      OATs
      • 75
        Proxmox
        Speaker: Marco Landoni (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
    • 10:30
      Coffee break
    • Extras: Open Science and Round Table on Mandatory Training
    • Training: Proxmox - Open-source server solutions M. Hack (OATs)

      M. Hack

      OATs
      • 80
        Proxmox
        Speaker: Marco Landoni (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
    • 13:00
      Light Lunch
    • FVG HPC facilities and Industrial Involvement
      • 81
        Artificial Intelligence as an Operational Layer in a Research Infrastructure: Infrastructure, Chatbots, Agentic Systems and Publications at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste
        Speaker: Roberto Pugliese (Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste)
        AIasOLinaRI.pdf
      • 82
        Quantum Computing and Quantum-Native Formulations for Imaging and Spectroscopy at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste: Perspectives Toward Astrophysics
        Speaker: George Kourousias (Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste)
      • 83
        Applied Scientific Computing at ICTP in the Era of the AI
        Speaker: Ivan Girotto (ICTP)
        INAF.pdf
      • 84
        Soluzione QStar per l’archiviazione a lungo termine
        Speaker: Raffaele Persico (QStar Technologies)
      • 85
        TensorBank: Tensor Lakehouse for Foundation Model Training
        Speaker: Romeo Kienzler (IBM Research Europe)
    • Training: Networking Sala Margherita Hack (OATs - Castello Basevi)

      Sala Margherita Hack

      OATs - Castello Basevi

      via G.B. Tiepolo 11
      • 86
        The Heart of the Data Center - Designing Scalable and Reliable Networks

        A Data Center (DC) network requires a design tailored to accommodate a high density of devices physically distributed across medium-to-large environments.
        These devices may need to communicate with other hardware within the same DC, often involving high-volume data throughput.
        Consequently, the network must fulfill specific requirements, which we will analyze, to achieve a scalable, reliable, and redundant configuration.

        Speaker: Mr Federico Fiordoliva (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
        hearth_of_dc_network_design.pdf
    • 15:40
      Coffee break - @ Savoia
    • FVG HPC facilities and Industrial Involvement
      • 87
        HPC & Big Data at the University of Trieste

        An overview of the HPC and big data activities at the University of Trieste.

        Speaker: Stefano Borgani (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
        HPC-UNITS-USC_C.pdf
        HPC-UNITS-USC_C.pptx
    • 16:15
      Coffee break @ OATs Margherita Hack (OATS)

      Margherita Hack

      OATS
    • Storage: Innovative solutions
      • 16:30
        Coffe Break
      • 88
        Storage: Innovative solutions
  • Friday 13 March
    • FVG HPC facilities and Industrial Involvement
      • 89
        ORFEO digital infrastructure at Area Science park

        We will describe brieflty our ORFEO digital infrastructure devoted to host HPC activities and HPC/AI data services for scientific community and the industrial one. We will present the current situation and the challlenge ahead to allow a perfect exploitation of the digital infrastructure.

        Speaker: Dr Tommaso Rodani (Area Science Park)
    • INAF System Administration
      Convener: Massimo Sponza (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
    • INAF Large Projects
    • 11:00
      Coffee break
    • Discussion with the INAF leadership about perspectives in Computing and Data Curation
      Conveners: Prof. Isabella Pagano (INAF - Scientific Director), Prof. Andrea Possenti (INAF USC-C Coordinator)