CINECA FORTRAN COURSE

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to spend a whole week in Bologna, hosted by CINECA, to take their course: Introduction to Fortran for Scientific Computing.

It was an incredibly formative and, in some ways, unique experience.

The only “computer scientist”

The first thing I noticed, and what made the course even more interesting, was my background. Of all the participants (many of them chemists, materials engineers, or scientific researchers), I was the only one with a purely computer science background.

This created a wonderful exchange: on the one hand, Fortran is a language that lives and thrives in high-performance computing (HPC), a world that “breathes” science. On the other, my approach was perhaps more oriented towards code optimization, structure, and the programming best practices I’ve studied since high school.

This is why I was able to apply many concepts I had already studied and encountered with languages ​​like C or Java without any problems, immediately, to Fortran as well (unlike other languages, for which it wasn’t something immediate).

Seeing how these two worlds intersect in modern Fortran was fascinating.

The Importance of Feeling “Ignorant”

There’s something incredibly stimulating about being surrounded by highly competent people and the importance of the environment. I admit that at times I felt very ignorant, but it’s precisely this feeling that I love. It’s not a limitation, it’s a driving force. Every question I didn’t know the answer to, every concept I struggled to immediately grasp, every complex technical discussion fueled my desire to learn.

Being supported by such knowledgeable professionals made me realize how much there still is to discover and how important it is to never rest on one’s laurels. This experience has encouraged me even more to accelerate my learning pace, to dedicate more time to studying, and to never settle.

I want to sincerely thank CINECA for the opportunity and the impeccable organization. But a special thanks goes to the teachers and tutors who guided us on this journey: Caterina Caravita, Angela Acocella, Tommaso Gorni, Lorenzo Varassi, and Moreno Guernelli.

Their expertise, kindness, and availability were exceptional.

There’s no better feeling than being surrounded by professionals of this caliber. They make you feel pleasantly “ignorant,” in the best sense of the word: they show you how much ground there is still to cover and how many fascinating things there are to learn.

This kind of stimulation is priceless and encourages me even more to pick up the pace and continue to delve deeper.

Materials and Resources

For those who are curious or would like to take a look at the course materials, I’ve uploaded everything to my GitHub repository. You can find exercises, code examples, and notes I’ve collected over the past few days.

🔗 Course repository

Conclusions

This week at CINECA reminded me why I chose this path. My passion for computer science and scientific computing is fueled by experiences like this: quality training, competent people sharing their knowledge, and the constant feeling that there’s always something new to learn.

If you have the opportunity to attend CINECA courses or workshops, I highly recommend it. It’s absolutely worth it.

Thanks again to the entire CINECA team for this opportunity!