The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science has announced that it will fund the Western Advanced Training for Computational High-Energy Physics (WATCHEP), one of three national programs providing training and research opportunities for the next generation of computational scientists and engineers. This workforce is key to enabling fundamental science discoveries with complex experimental projects and extremely large datasets.

WATCHEP is a consortium of six large public universities in collaboration with national laboratories and national supercomputing centers.

  • Oregon State University
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • University of California, Irvine
  • University of California, San Diego
  • University of California, Santa Cruz
  • University of Washington
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
  • Fermi National Acclerator Laboratory
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The 2-year training program is focused on a tailored curriculum in technical areas with cutting-edge research projects. Students in physics, astrophysics, and computer science will particpate in research in the following technical areas:

  • hardware-software co-design
  • collaborative software infrastructure
  • high-performance software and algorithms

WATCHEP trainees will participate in programs on the energy, cosmic, and intensity frontiers, with a focus on projects sponsored by the DOE Office of High-Energy Physics. Training in effective communications, project management, and research ethics is also included.

More information is available in this article from the DOE Office of Science.