KEK Computing Research Center

KEK Computing Research Center
Name	KEK Computing Research Center
Native name	高エネルギー加速器研究機構 計算科学研究センター
Established	2000
Location	Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
Coordinates	36.0646°N 140.1205°E
Type	Research center
Parent organization	High Energy Accelerator Research Organization

KEK Computing Research Center The KEK Computing Research Center provides specialized computational infrastructure and scientific computing services for particle physics, accelerator science, and related disciplines. Situated within the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization complex near Tsukuba, the center supports major experimental facilities and international collaborations with high-performance computing, data storage, and network engineering. It coordinates resources for long-term data preservation and analysis across multi-institutional projects involving laboratories, universities, and funding agencies.

Overview

The center operates as a hub linking major facilities such as KEK, SuperKEKB, Belle II, Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex, J-PARC and collaborates with institutions including CERN, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and DESY. Its services support experiments from facilities like ATLAS, CMS, T2K, NOvA, Hyper-Kamiokande and projects connected to observatories such as Kamioka Observatory and Super-Kamiokande. The center also maintains connections with computing initiatives like the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid, Open Science Grid, PRACE, GÉANT and national networks including SINET and JGN-X.

History

The origin of the center traces to computing efforts supporting TRISTAN and the KEKB collider era, expanding with international datasets from collaborations with CERN and SLAC. During the transition from KEKB to SuperKEKB and the commissioning of Belle II, computing demands prompted consolidation of storage, middleware and grid services influenced by standards developed at European Organization for Nuclear Research and Internet2 partners. Major milestones include adoption of grid technologies pioneered by projects such as LCG and integration with cloud initiatives like OpenStack and collaborations with supercomputing centers including RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology and National Institute of Informatics partnerships. The center adapted to big data trends emerging from experiments such as LHCb and neutrino programs like T2K.

Infrastructure and Facilities

The facility houses high-performance clusters, tape libraries and distributed storage systems interoperable with dCache, EOS and object storage solutions. Network links bridge to international backbones including GÉANT, SINET, JGN and peering with Internet2 nodes serving collaborations with CERN and Fermilab. It operates data centers compliant with standards from organizations such as Green Grid for energy efficiency and works with hardware vendors like IBM, Cray, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and NVIDIA for CPU, GPU and accelerator deployments. The center provides virtualization and container platforms leveraging Docker, Kubernetes, Singularity and supports workflow tools influenced by HTCondor, Grid Engine and Slurm Workload Manager.

Research and Services

Services include data acquisition, calibration, event reconstruction and simulation support for experiments such as Belle II, ATLAS, CMS and T2K, and software frameworks aligned with ROOT, Geant4, Gaudi and REANA. It enables machine learning research using platforms compatible with TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn and integrates with analysis environments from institutions like University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Tohoku University, Osaka University and Nagoya University. The center contributes to software preservation initiatives aligned with CERN Open Data Portal practices and supports reproducible research workflows advocated by groups such as The Carpentries.

Collaborations and Projects

The center participates in international consortia and projects including Worldwide LHC Computing Grid partners, data management efforts with Rucio, and neutrino computing collaborations for Hyper-Kamiokande and T2K. It collaborates with regional supercomputing centers like AICS, Tohoku University's Cyberscience Center, and engages with national initiatives such as e-Rad, SINET5 deployment and joint projects with National Institute of Informatics and JAXA data science groups. The center supports software development partnerships with experiments involving Belle II, LHCb, ATLAS, CMS and astrophysics projects associated with Subaru Telescope and LSST preparatory efforts.

Organization and Funding

Administratively it is part of the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization framework and coordinates with Japanese ministries and agencies including Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japan), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and receives support through grants from entities like Japan Science and Technology Agency and competitive programs involving Horizon 2020-style international funding mechanisms. Governance involves liaison offices interacting with university computing centers across institutions such as University of Tokyo, Keio University, Waseda University and national laboratories like KEK, J-PARC and RIKEN.

Outreach and Education

The center hosts training and summer schools in collaboration with organizations like International Centre for Theoretical Physics, CERN School of Computing, The Carpentries and university programs at University of Tokyo and Tsukuba University. It provides workshops on tools used in particle physics analysis such as ROOT workshops, machine learning tutorials with TensorFlow and PyTorch, and contributes to open data and citizen science initiatives modeled after CERN Open Data Portal and partnerships with outreach programs at Super-Kamiokande and Kamioka Observatory.

Category:Research institutes in Japan Category:High-performance computing