Looking back on the NHR Graduate School Course Week 2025
As a collaboration among the nine NHR Centers of the NHR Alliance, the NHR Graduate School offers a unique program for PhD students. It provides support to talented fellows who specialize in computational science and high-performance computing. Each year, the fellows are offered a course week at a different NHR center; this year’s event, hosted by the NHR@FAU, has just come to a successful end.
From May 19–23, 21 PhD fellows from all over Germany explored a diverse range of HPC and AI topics while participating in networking and mentoring programs. Three NHR centers (NHR@TUDa, NHR@ZIB, and NHR@FAU) provided two concurrent tracks of lectures and hands-on tutorials packed with useful content: GPU programming, code generation for HPC, modern AI frameworks, and CI/CD workflows. To top it all off, the fellows had the opportunity to present and discuss their own research during a lively poster session.
On Tuesday and Thursday, an attractive fringe program left no space for boredom: The fellows paid a visit to the Computer Science Collection Erlangen (“ISER”), had a guided tour through the old town of Nuremberg, and explored the history of beer brewing in the old beer cellars at the “Berch,” the iconic (and historic) landmark of beer production in Erlangen.
We would like to thank all co-organizers, teachers, and helpers, the NHR Office, and especially the fellows for their active participation in the course program. An enthusiastic fellow described the week as “incredibly well-organized, intellectually enriching, and very welcoming.” and truly appreciated the opportunity to be part of the event. One can hardly think of a better place to learn, network, and have fun together than the NHR Graduate School Course Week.
