In April 2023, the Center for Research on Innovative Simulation Software (CISS) entered the fourth phase of its research activities.
CISS was inaugurated as the official research center of the Institute of Industrial Science of the University of Tokyo in January 2008. Since 2008, CISS has focused on achieving the following objectives: (1) research and development of advanced, world-leading simulation software, (2) dissemination of research products to the academic community and society, and (3) advancement of the educational foundation to increase the availability of human resources for the development and usage of advanced simulation software.
CISS, in the fourth phase, promotes the development and utilization of the simulation technology for the followings: simulation of all processes?from material development to disposal; prediction of issues that may occur at each stage of design and manufacturing; proposing solutions to problems in engineering processes; and, value creation in engineering. In concrete terms, CISS is reconstructing, and dramatically strengthening core competencies in dynamics and developing fundamental technologies to advance simulation software. Subsequently, this advanced simulation software is designed via the developed fundamental technology that combines high performance computing (HPC) and the data-science approach. Moreover, the fundamental technology and the data collected by the advanced simulation software are disseminated to the academic community and society. This in turn contributes to increasing the availability of human resources for the development and usage of advanced simulation software.
A part of the research and development project of designing advanced simulation software conducted by CISS was the project sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan; these projects were entitled "Research and Development of Innovative Simulation Software" (from October 2008 to March 2013), "the Strategic Programs for Innovative Research?Field 4: Industrial Innovation" (from 2011 to 2015), and so on. Due to these projects, CISS established a strong collaboration between industry, academia, and the government to develop advanced simulation software that runs efficiently in HPC environments.
Since 2018, CISS has continuously utilized this software to promote projects sponsored by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO); this software was also utilized heavily in the proposal of the development of a hydrogen society, which was accelerated by the Prime Minister's carbon neutrality declaration. CISS is currently promoting the "Research and Development for Dramatic Expansion of Fuel Cell Utilization by industry-academia-government collaboration/Development of Advanced Hydrogen Utilization Technology/Theoretical study and demonstration of technology for the optimal design for high-pressure hydrogen composite tanks employing machine learning" (from 2021 to 2024); further, it is developing an IT platform for ensuring the optimal design of this society by integrating large-scale finite element analysis and machine learning.
Additionally, CISS is promoting the "Program for Promoting Researches on the supercomputer Fugaku: Drastic acceleration of the industrial applications of HPC through AI and research and development of new computational methods for the next era" (from 2023 to 2025), which is sponsored by MEXT. This project aims to demonstrate that the industrial application of HPC can be drastically accelerated by the use of AI and to implement the results of the research in a broad range of manufacturing fields. CISS will continue to research and develop simulation software to be used in the K computer and the supercomputer Fugaku through an industry-academia-government collaboration system established in "the Strategic Programs for Innovative Research?Field 4: Industrial Innovation." Additionally, through research, and development of advanced simulation technology, as in the past, CISS contributes significantly to enhancing the industrial competitive advantage of Japan in the world market.
We appreciate your continued support for CISS.
Nobuhiro Yoshikawa, Center Director, Professor
