Project for Data and Computing Infrastructure for the Einstein Telescope
A consortium of 14 universities, universities of applied sciences, and companies will develop new AI models and powerful computing infrastructure to help the Einstein Telescope detect gravitational waves.
This is the mission assigned to the 14 partners from Flanders, Wallonia, the Netherlands, and North Rhine–Westphalia within the Interreg project ETCETERA, which will be launched next year under the leadership of University of Hasselt.
When detecting gravitational waves, the Einstein Telescope will generate enormous volumes of data. It is crucial that these data streams can be analyzed quickly, as research choices and decisions depend on them.
Rapid decision-making thanks to AI
From the storage and transmission of all this data to its analysis: all these aspects are addressed in the project. Speed is key.
As soon as the Einstein Telescope detects a signal indicating a possible gravitational wave, conventional telescopes are immediately alerted. After capturing a signal, it must quickly be determined whether it is an observation of interest and from which direction it originates, so that conventional telescopes can be pointed accordingly. These include optical, infrared, or radio telescopes.
The Einstein Telescope will be so powerful that it will pick up more signals than can be carefully analyzed due to limited computing infrastructure. The available computing power must therefore be used to determine which signals are worth further analysis, which are not, and where computing capacity is available.
To enable these rapid decisions, AI models will be developed within ETCETERA. Artificial intelligence will also be used to accelerate calculations involving highly complex physical models.
Collaboration with industry
Within ETCETERA, seven universities will work closely with seven companies.
“The challenges we aim to address with this project are unique. The entire testing environment being developed around computational power and AI models makes it highly attractive for technology companies to participate. Together with industry, we will provide public and private organizations with insights into how such systems can be developed in a sustainable way and within Europe. Applications can be found in energy networks or in the space sector, for example in the control of satellites,” says Tina Smets, business developer at UHasselt.
Relevance
The ETCETERA project will officially start on January 1, 2027, and will run for three years.
“Even if it were decided that the Einstein Telescope will not be built in the Meuse–Rhine Euroregion, the knowledge and theory developed within the ETCETERA consortium would still be relevant,” explains Professor Olivier Thas, who leads the project from the Data Science Institute at UHasselt.
“We therefore see this project as a first step: we are building a testbed for the data processing of the Einstein Telescope, on which we and other research groups can continue to build for many years. In any case, the challenges are significant.”
Partners
ETCETERA is an Interreg EMR research project led by Hasselt University, in collaboration with KU Leuven, Université catholique de Louvain, Maastricht University, University of Liège, RWTH Aachen University, Utrecht University, Spacebel S.A., Boosting Alpha B.V., B12 Consulting, Deltatec, Dataminded, dataMatters GmbH, and Aprico Consultants (part of YUMA).
