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ETH:: Available Semester/MSc/BSc Projects

We regularly offer various research projects (term, BSc and MSc) within computational physics. Topics span experimental to theoretical work and include large-scale simulations and challenging numerical problems. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of our projects, each topic carries a recommendation (CSE, MATH, PHYS, INF, or a combination). If you're interested, get in touch so we can find the best project for you. I am usually at ETH Fridays in HPK G 28 or available via ZOOM. Please send an email to andreaad@ethz.ch with the subject "Thesis Interest".

The CSCS Alps super computer

Performance Portable Solvers

All research around performance-portable solvers is based on the Independent Parallel Particle Layer (IPPL), a performance-portable C++ library for particle–mesh methods. IPPL uses Kokkos, heFFTe and MPI to provide a portable, massively parallel toolkit for particle–mesh simulations. IPPL supports 1–6 dimensions, mixed precision, and asynchronous execution across different execution spaces (CPUs and GPUs). Excellent C++ (>=17) skills and an understanding of HPC concepts are required.

We are developing a massively parallel, performance-portable Particle‑in‑Cell framework. The main goal is to understand and demonstrate performance on next-generation HPC systems such as ALPS at CSCS. You will have access to Piz Daint (CSCS) and Cori (NERSC) with tests on systems beyond 100,000 cores. Project topics include:

  • Performance tuning (particle sorting) — in collaboration with NVIDIA
  • Electromagnetic field solver: higher-order FEM discretizations
    Matrix-Free FEM Solver
  • Parallel-in-time discretization

Add particles to an existing FDTD solver and model a free‑electron laser.

OPAL is an open-source particle accelerator simulation tool. We are working to make OPAL exascale-ready. If you enjoy advanced C++ programming, high-performance computing, and international teamwork, the challenges include:

  • Implementation of accelerator elements (RF cavities, etc)
  • Implementation of MC algorithms for physics processes (particle decay, ionization, multiple scattering)