André Pereira

André Pereira

Assistant Professor @ University of Minho

Integrated Researcher @ INESC TEC

About me

I have been an Assistant Professor at the Department of Informatics of the University of Minho since September 2023, and a Senior Researcher in High-Performance Computing at the Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC) since January 2023. Previously, I was a Post-Doc researcher in High Performance Computing at the Minho Advanced Computing Center (MACC) on the EuroCC project. My main research areas relate to inter- and intra-application irregular workload scheduling, combining execution time and the carbon footprint of the code. I am also responsible for developing, assessing, and maintaining mechanisms for collaboration with academic and industry partners, focusing on coding best practices, know-how transfer, and technological consulting.

I previously worked as a Software Engineer in developing TopoSEM, a C++ software product by Electron SoftView for the SEM industry, whose release is imminent. Responsible for implementing several core functionalities related to data processing and image manipulation, as well as for the co-design and implementation of the UI. I am also responsible for optimising key compute-intensive components of the product to ensure real-time user interaction with the application.

I obtained my PhD in 2019, awarded by the MAP Joint Doctoral Program on Informatics, where my research focused on the development of automatic parallelisation and scheduling strategies and tools for efficient resource usage of manycore, GPU, and multicore CPU devices for pipelined data streaming applications. I’m responsible for the development and maintenance of HEP-Frame, a framework for the development and efficient execution of data analyses, which resulted from my PhD work. I was also involved in projects on efficient implementation of Machine and Deep Learning solutions on GPUs and embedded systems for real-time classification. Through the research on these subjects, I co-advised several Master Dissertations in conjunction with different research groups and BOSCH.

In 2011 I was awarded the Bsc in Informatics Engineering by the University of Minho, Portugal. During my Msc, I focused on High Performance Computing and Parallel Programming for homogeneous systems and heterogeneous systems with accelerators. After the first year of the Msc I had the opportunity to go on an internship at the University of Texas at Austin, working on the Computational Visualization Center at ICES, parallelizing a molecular docking application.

Research and Innovation Projects

  • EPICURE (2024 - 2028), a four-year operation of a distributed European-wide high-performance computing application support service bringing together Application Support Teams (ASTs) set up in all current and future EuroHPC Hosting Entities, operating its supercomputers. https://epicure-hpc.eu/
  • exaSIMPLE (2024 - 2025), a project financed by Inno4scale (European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking project), and it aims at preparing CFD flow solvers for the newly deployed exascale HPC systems incorporated state-of-the-art machine learning techniques in traditional SIMPLE-like flow solvers. https://blueoasis.pt/portfolio-item/exasimple/
  • EUMaster4HPC (2022 - 2026), a European initiative to develop a unified Master’s program in High-Performance Computing, combining innovative teaching, collaboration across universities and industries, and fostering a network of HPC specialists to advance education and application of HPC in Europe. https://eumaster4hpc.uni.lu/
  • EuroCC2 and Castiel2 (2023 - 2026), are European projects funded by EuroHPC-JU to establish a network of National Competence Centers (NCCs) across Europe to enhance HPC skills, promote collaboration, and develop world-class supercomputing infrastructure and technologies. https://eurocc.fccn.pt/en/eurocc-project/
  • SustainableHPC (2021 - 2025), a national project that aims to develop an energy management solution that promotes the decarbonization of supercomputer’s operation, including energy efficiency procedures. https://www.inesctec.pt/en/projects/sustainable-hpc

2024 Papers

  • Carlos Silva, Ricardo Vilaça, André Pereira, Ricardo Bessa, “A review on the decarbonization of high-performance computing centers”. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 189, Part B (2024). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-023-03861-1
  • Reascos, L., Carneiro, F., Pereira, A., Filipe Castro, N., & Mendes Ribeiro, R., “Berry: A code for the differentiation of Bloch wavefunctions from DFT calculations”. Computer Physics Communications, 295 (2024). https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2006.02744

Ongoing Thesis Supervisions

  • “Development and Implementation of Scheduling Algorithms in High Performance Computing Systems”, to be defended by Diogo Pires at the University of Minho.
  • “Energy-aware Scheduling of Irregular Tasks”, to be defended by Nuno Reis at the University of Minho.
  • “Performance and Carbon Footprint Modelling of Irregular Tasks”, to be defended by Nuno Carvalho at the University of Minho.
  • “Improving the Performance of the Berry Software”, to be defended by Carolina Gomes at the University of Minho.