The Monte Carlo Computational Summit – October 25 & 26, 2023 – Notre Dame, Indiana, USA

Abstract

The Monte Carlo Computational Summit was held on the campus of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, USA on 25–26 October 2023. The goals of the summit were to discuss algorithmic and software alterations required for successfully porting respective code bases to exascale-class computing hardware, compare software engineering techniques used by various code teams, and consider the adoption of industry-standard benchmark problems to better facilitate code-to-code performance comparisons. Participants reported that identifying and implementing suitable Monte Carlo algorithms for GPUs continues to be a sticking point. They also report significant difficulty porting existing algorithms between GPU APIs (specifically Nvidia CUDA to AMD ROCm). To better compare code-to-code performance, participants decided to design a C5G7-like benchmark problem with a defined figure of merit, with the expectation of adding more benchmarks in the future. The participants also identified the need to explore the intermediate and long-term future of the Monte Carlo neutron transport community and how best to modernize and contextualize Monte Carlo as a useful tool in modern industry. Overall the summit was considered to be a success by the organizers and participants, and the group shared a strong desire for future, potentially larger, Monte Carlo summits.

Keywords:

• Monte Carlo
• neutron transport
• GPU
• HPC
• radiation transport
• exascale

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the attendees, presenters, and organizers including co-chairs Alex Long and Steven Hamilton. We would also like to thank the University of Notre Dame and ND Energy for hosting the Monte Carlo computational summit. Joanna Piper Morgan has previously had a co-op position at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and previosuly interned at Los Alamos National Laboratory where she worked on MCATK. All other authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Center for Exascale Monte-Carlo Neutron Transport (CEMeNT) a PSAAP-III project funded by the Department of Energy, grant number: DE-NA003967.