The Computation-based Science and Technology Research Center (CaSToRC) of the Cyprus Institute (CyI) has been inaugurated as the National Competence Center (NCC) in High Performance Computing (HPC) of Cyprus on 10th of September 2020, under the auspices of the Deputy Minister for Research, Innovation & Digital Policy Dr. Kyriakos Kokkinos. The inauguration of the CaSToRC as NCC in HPC is part of the EuroCC Competence Centre activity, one of the activities of the pan-European EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, a joint initiative between the EU, European countries and private partners to develop a World Class Supercomputing Ecosystem in Europe.

The EuroCC Competence Center activity brings together the necessary expertise to set up a network of NCCs in HPC across Europe to provide a broad service portfolio tailored to the respective national needs of industry, academia and public administration promoting innovation and competitiveness.

As part of its NCC responsibilities, CaSToRC seeks to help companies in technology transfer and business development activities. CaSToRC aims to achieve this through collaborative industrial projects where CaSToRC personnel can work together with company employees, train them in new technologies, which they can then implement in their company’s work process for its development and to make them more efficient and competitive. An example of such a collaboration is CaSToRC’s project with RetailZoom Ltd.

RetailZoom is a data analytics company operating in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, aiming at providing analytical insights and custom software solutions to medium and large businesses and organizations, with services revolving around statistical analysis and data automation.

The objective of the project is to create recommendation algorithms using machine learning / AI methodologies and HPC. These types of algorithms are used to gain complex insights into the customer and product based on past consumer interactions and make suggestions to consumers in a personalised way. With these algorithms, RetailZoom can help retailers provide a more personalised experience to their customers and at the same time the retailers can improve their sales.

The project started on the 1st of June and will run for 6 months.