The Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing (PASC) invites minisymposium submissions for PASC18, co-sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and SIGHPC, which will be held at the Congress Center Basel in Basel, Switzerland, from July 2 to 4, 2018.

PASC18 is the fifth edition of the PASC Conference series, an international platform for the exchange of competences 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.

As in previous years, the technical program of PASC18 is organized around eight scientific domains:

• Chemistry and Materials
• Life Sciences
• Physics
• Climate and Weather
• Solid Earth Dynamics
• Engineering
• Computer Science and Applied Mathematics
• Emerging Application Domains (e.g. Social Sciences, Finance, …)

A minisymposium is a two-hour session 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. Proposals that address aspects emphasizing the close coupling of data and computation in current and future high performance computing applications – as indicated by the theme of PASC18: Fast and Big Data, Fast and Big Computation – are particularly welcome.

In their submission, minisymposium organizers must propose speakers and titles for four 30-minute presentations (typically, these are 25-minute talks plus 5 minutes for questions). The minisymposium organizer is permitted to give one of the four presentations her/himself. If desired, the organizer might choose to conduct a panel discussion or open discussion forum as the fourth 30-minute presentation slot in the minisymposium.

The organizer of a minisymposium takes an "active chair" role in their session – that is, s/he 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

A minisymposium proposal consists of a title and overview of the minisymposium, along with a list of proposed speakers and presentation titles.

• Topic: A title for the minisymposium of no more than 20 words.
• Scientific domain(s): Select a primary domain and optionally additional domains. Interdisciplinarity is encouraged.
• Organizer details: Full names and contact details of organizers (up to three).
• Presenter details: Full names and contact details of four proposed speakers, along with proposed titles of their presentations.
• Description for review: A description of the minisymposium of no more than 800 words. The description should outline the scope of the minisymposium, explain the problems being addressed and their importance, and discuss current directions of research and methods being developed to solve these problems.
• Abstract for publication: An abstract for publication in the conference program (200 words).

If the proposal is accepted then presentation titles and abstracts (200 words) will be requested from each speaker, and necessary revisions can be made to the minisymposium abstract for publication in the conference program.

Domain experts from the PASC18 Scientific Committee will assess minisymposium proposals based on the following criteria:

• The research described should be of significant current interest to the given scientific domain, and ideally, have potential application to other scientific domains.
• The research should be based on state-of-the-art numerical methods.
• Proposals 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.
• Organizers are strongly encouraged to include women and members of other underrepresented groups.

Proposals must be submitted through the PASC18 online submission portal.

SUBMISSION DEADLINES

• 7 January 2018 26 November 2017: Deadline for submissions
• 29 January 2018 12 January 2018: Acceptance notifications
• 7 March 2018: Deadline for submission of speakers’ abstracts and revised minisymposium abstract for publication in the conference program

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

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION TERMS

Please note that PASC18 is unable to reimburse the expenses or waive the registration fees of organizers and speakers. All organizers and speakers must register for the conference and are subject to the corresponding registration fees.