Application Procedure for ABCI Grand Challenge 2023
AI Bridging Cloud Infrastructure (ABCI) is the largest scale computing infrastructure in the world (as of 2018) for artificial intelligence processing, built and operated by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), began operations in August 2018.
AIST is implementing the ABCI Grand Challenge program to support the challenge of the most important issues in the field of artificial intelligence that can only be made possible through enormous computing power, as well as important social issues utilizing artificial intelligence, big data, and quantum computation.
The ABCI Grand Challenge is a publicly solicited challenge program that allows one research group to occupy the maximum number of compute nodes of the ABCI, 120 nodes (960 GPUs) for the Compute Node (A) or 1,088 nodes (4,352 GPUs) for the Compute Node (V), for a maximum of 24 hours. The ABCI Grand Challenge 2023 also offers a class of 136 Compute Nodes (V) (544 GPUs) for up to one week of exclusive use.
Provided Resources
Please refer to “https://abci.ai/en/about_abci/computing_resource.html” for information on the computing resources provided by the ABCI Grand Challenge. The Grand Challenge offers four classes of resources: A-Class, V-Large Class, V-Medium Class, and V-Week Class in this year.
Class A
- 120 nodes (960 GPUs) of the Compute Node (A) can be occupied for up to 24 hours.
Class V-Large
- 1,088 nodes (4,352 GPUs) of the Compute Node (V) can be occupied for up to 24 hours.
Class V-Medium
- 512 nodes (2,048 GPUs) of the Compute Node (V) can be occupied for up to 24 hours.
Class V-Week
- 136 nodes (544 GPUs) of the Compute Node (V) can be occupied for up to 1 week (7x24=168 hours).
Notes
- Proposals are open to the public, and can be submitted by individuals or groups residing in Japan only.
- Each proposal will be accepted for approximately two proposals per class.
- Some of the resources scheduled to be provided may not be available due to unavoidable reasons, such as dealing with node failure.
- If necessary, the research may be conducted as a joint research with AIST.
- For selected proposals, based on the details of the application, ABCI will provide an opportunity to conduct a rehearsal with a small-scale run on ABCI prior to the implementation of the challenge, as well as an opportunity to make advance preparations.
- There is no fee for this service, including rehearsals.
- When using the ABCI, you are required to comply with the terms and conditions stipulated in the “Agreement of Use for ABCI” (“ABCI Terms of Use for the Publicly Available High-Performance Computing System”) .
Overview of the Implementation Schedule
In FY2023, the program will be held four times as follows:
(Addended on June 29) Application "Class A" programs for the round 2 and 3 will be cancelled.
(Addended on November 1) Applications for the round 4 will be accepted. Only "Class V-Week" will be accepted. If deemed necessary for rehearsal and preparation prior to Challenge implementation, 1,000 points will be awarded in addition to the environment for Challenge implementation. However, the need must be specifically stated in the application.
Round #1
- Accepted classes: A, V-Large, V-Week
- Open call for applications: Feb 17
- Application deadline: Mar 31
- Acceptance notification: Apr 14
- Challenge Period: Mid-May
- Result Report: Jan, 2024 (tentative)
Round #2
- Accepted classes: V-Large, V-Medium No application for "Class A".
- Open call for applications: Jul 1
- Application deadline: Aug 31
- Acceptance notification: Sep 15
- Challenge Period: Mid-Oct
- Reporting of results: Jan, 2024 (tentative)
Round #3
- Accepted classes: V-Large, V-Medium No application for "Class A".
- Open call for applications: Aug 1
- Application deadline: Oct 15
- Acceptance notification: Oct 31
- Challenge Period: Early Dec
- Reporting of results: Jan, 2025 (tentative)
Round #4 * "Round 4" was added on November 1
- Accepted classes: V-Week
- Open call for applications: Nov 1
- Application deadline: Dec 8
- Acceptance notification: Dec 22
- Challenge Period: Late Jan to Mid Feb, 2024 (tentative)
- Reporting of results: Jan, 2025 (tentative)
Proposals and Applicant Requirements
- The proposal must be a challenging proposal that utilizes artificial intelligence or big data to perform large-scale processing on ABCI using up to 120 nodes (960 GPUs) with the Compute Node (A), 1,088 nodes (4,352 GPUs) with the Compute Node (V), 512 nodes (2,048 GPUs) with Compute Node (V) or using 136 nodes (544 GPUs) with Compute nodes (V) by conducting long-time processing.
- The proposal must be fully prepared to properly use up the maximum number of nodes on the ABCI when implementing the challenge.
- Applicants must be affiliated with universities in Japan, public research institutions of Japan, or private companies in Japan.
Application
Please download the application forms below (Sorry, Japanese only.):
Complete the application form and submit it via e-mail to the address below by the application deadline.
E-mail address for submission: abci-gc@aist.go.jp
Applicants will be notified of the review results by e-mail.
Assignment Review
Proposals will be reviewed by the Proposal Review Committee, which will be established by the ABCI Grand Challenge Executive Committee, based on the results of the document review and discussion.
The main criteria are as follows:
- Challenging proposal
- Potential for groundbreaking results in the field of artificial intelligence and the use of artificial intelligence and big data
- Academic or social impact
- Feasibility and appropriateness of the plan
- Implementation structure and plan
Results
- In principle, the results obtained through this program must be made public.
- When publishing the results, you must clearly state that you used the ABCI and that the results were obtained through the ABCI Grand Challenge Program.
- All intellectual property rights obtained through the ABCI Grand Challenge will belong to the implementer of the adopted proposal. However, proposals conducted in collaboration with AIST are subject to the terms of the collaboration agreement.
- Regardless of the degree of achievement of the goals, the following actions are required after the implementation of the proposal.
- Submit an implementation report according to the form provided by AIST (To be submitted within one month after the implementation of the proposal. Example Form)
- Presentation at the results reporting meeting in the fiscal year in which the proposal is implemented or the following fiscal year.
- Submission of Summary of Results (To be submitted in conjunction with the presentation at the results reporting session. Example Form) to be used by AIST to introduce and publicize ABCI.
Notation when reporting research results
When publishing a paper or other publication on the results obtained through this program, please include the following sample text.
Name of the Program
- English: “ABCI Grand Challenge” Program, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST).
- Japanese: 産総研「ABCIグランドチャレンジ」プログラム
Sample Acknowledgments
- English: Computational resource of AI Bridging Cloud Infrastructure (ABCI) was awarded by “ABCI Grand Challenge” Program, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST).
- Japanese: 産総研「ABCIグランドチャレンジ」プログラムにより提供を受けた，AI橋渡しクラウド（ABCI）の計算リソースを用いた．
