Feb 10 – 13, 2014
Tel Aviv University
Israel timezone
The Future of HPC: Israeli Innovation
and
PRACE Introductory Workshop

The PRACE Winter School is targeted at two separate user groups. The first is a half day mini-workshop, taking place on Monday morning Feb 10, 2014 from 8:30-13:00 entitled "The Future of HPC: Israeli Innovation", where we will showcase Israeli companies and researchers who are developing the future HPC technologies for the next 5 years. 

The other part (starting Monday afternoon) will be 3 days of an introductory workshop on how to use PRACE resources. This will be a hands-on workshop, limited to 60 people.

The workshop is organised by IUCC in collaboration with the LinkSCEEM-2 project. LinkSCEEM-2 is providing free access to HPC resources to scientists from the Eastern Mediterranean. Furthermore, LinkSCEEM also supports the regional user community through tailored training activities. 

The school is offered free of charge to researchers, academics and industrial users, residing in PRACE member states and eligible countries. It is the responsibility of the attendees to arrange and cover travel and accommodation. The school's official language is English.

For the 3 day workshop sessions: All attendees are expected to bring their own notebook/tablet (which in addition needs to be able to support ssh), but attendees will work in teams of two.

Social event
On Wednesday, Feb. 12 we are planning a tour of the Old City of Jerusalem.  Bus pickup will be from the Tel Aviv University workshop at 13:00, and we will have a guided 4 hour tour of some of the holiest sites in the world.  After the tour, we will have dinner at a nearby restaurant after which, a bus will deliver you all back to your hotels in Tel Aviv sometime around 22:00.
Starts
Ends
Israel
Tel Aviv University
Ramat Aviv Israel
Currency
Currency in Israel is NIS (New Israeli Shekel).  Exchange rate is currently around 1 Euro = 4.8NIS.  Further information can be found here.

Weather
Daytime weather in Tel Aviv will be around 19c, dropping down to 9c at night.  There is a 24% chance of moderate rainfall in February, so bring an umbrella.  Further information can be found here.

VISA
Visitors to Israel must hold a passport valid for at least another six months. Tourists can stay in Israel for up to three months, after which they may apply for an extension.
Nationals of most countries in America and Europe, as well as in several other countries, are not required to apply for a visa in advance, and are issued a tourist visa free of charge at every port of entry to Israel.  
To see a list of all countries and whether they have a visa exemption - click here.

Transportation 
Unfortunately, the airport train does not stop near the beach hotel area in Tel Aviv.   Therefore, our recommendation is to take a taxi directly to your hotel, which will cost around 150NIS (31 Euro).

Accomodations
There are numerous hotels along the Tel Aviv coast. 

We have reserved a number of rooms (Junior Suite) at the Alexander Hotel at a rate of 130Euro/night.  For reservations, send email to mazi.revach@alexander.co.il indicating you are requesting the IUCC rate.

Here are some additional recommended hotels, all located near each other since we will be providing bus pickup and drop-off to the workshop venue at Tel Aviv University.