Two years after it went into operation, the University of Bonn celebrated the Marvin Supercomputer with a community event at the Research and Technology Center for Detector Physics (FTD). Researchers from various disciplines presented projects that had been carried out using high-performance computing and used the event as an opportunity for interdisciplinary exchange. A team lead by ImmunoSensation³ members Prof. Dr. Michael Hölzel (Institute of Experimental Oncology) and PD Dr. Gregor Hagelueken (Institute of Structural Biology) use Marvin to design new proteins.
“For the past two years, Marvin has been a driving force for innovation in our research at the University of Bonn,” said Prof. Dr. Maren Bennewitz, Vice Rector for Digitalization and Information Management, at the opening of the event. “Over the past year, it has once again significantly transformed our scientific work. Whether it’s complex simulations, data-intensive analyses, or cutting-edge research in the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning: Marvin opens up possibilities for our researchers that were not foreseeable two years ago."
With regard to the University of Bonn’s successful confirmation as a University of Excellence with a record number of 8 Clusters of Excellence, she emphasized: “It goes without saying that digital infrastructures like Marvin play a central role in this. It exemplifies our commitment to combining scientific excellence with state-of-the-art infrastructure. With high-performance computing, we are creating the conditions to further develop scientific innovation at the highest level.”
Since its launch in 2024, 675 researchers from 183 research groups across all of the university’s faculties have used Marvin’s CPU and GPU clusters. They employ it, for example, for AI-driven methods to develop new therapeutics - an approach that has already formed the basis for a multimillion-dollar consortium project in cancer research. Marvin also enables the training of complex neural networks, for example for autonomous driving, robotics, or sustainable applications in agriculture and global food systems, as well as analyses of climate and satellite data and simulations of sustainable battery systems. It also plays a central role in theoretical chemistry, physics, and astrophysics (including research on black holes).
Furthermore, the infrastructure is an essential prerequisite for the Clusters of Excellence at the University of Bonn, including “Phenorob,” “Color meets Flavor,” and “Dynaverse,” as well as for other major collaborative projects such as the DFG Collaborative Research Centers DETECT and NuMeriQS, in which Marvin is used extensively. Overall, Marvin frequently serves as the basis for publications and new research approaches—and enables projects that would not be possible without this infrastructure.
Presentations showcase the range of research
In ten short presentations, the researchers demonstrated the wide range of applications for high-performance computing at the University of Bonn. This year’s Marvin Cup was won by the team led by Mohamad Hakam Shams Eddin and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Gall with their new AI model, RiverMamba. This model enables more precise predictions of flood risks than previous methods. "The event has once again shown that the HPC infrastructure and Marvin are essential for excellent research at the University of Bonn. I really appreciated the transdisciplinary nature of the event. It was very interesting to discuss use cases and potential solutions with my colleagues and doctoral students," said Gall. He plans to use the computing time to train the model at a higher resolution and thus make more accurate local predictions.
Second place went to Katrin Drysch from the Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry. She used the capabilities of high-performance computing to develop a workflow for creating nanoplastic particles. These particles can be used to investigate the interactions of nanoplastics with various environments, such as the human body or the ocean.
The team led by Prof. Dr. Michael Hölzel (Institute of Experimental Oncology) and PD Dr. Gregor Hagelueken (Institute of Structural Biology) uses AI models to design new proteins that can be used in cancer therapy or to combat viruses. With high-performance computers like Marvin, thousands of theoretically suitable designs can be generated, which can then be tested in the lab. This earned them third place in the voting. The audience decided the winners through a vote. The prizes included additional computing time and, in some cases, enhanced support from the HPC support team.
A highlight was the keynote address by Dr. Georg Hager, Head of the Research Department at the National High-Performance Computing Center (NHR) of Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. He demonstrated how the performance of code can be better understood, analyzed, and specifically optimized using simple approaches. This was complemented by intensive workshops, personal exchanges, and a hackathon, during which participants were able to improve their programs in a practical manner together with the Erlangen expert.
Central Support for Researchers
The HPC team at the University Computing Center is responsible for the technical operation of the supercomputer and for guiding researchers on how to make the best use of it. Team leader Dr. Dirk Barbi emphasized the importance of a high-performance infrastructure: “With Marvin, we have created a stable, centralized platform that makes high-performance computing accessible to researchers from a wide range of disciplines. “We are seeing particularly strong growth in demand in the fields of artificial intelligence and data-intensive simulations.”
Researchers receive support on scientific aspects and methodologies from the High Performance Computing and Analytics Lab (HPC/A-Lab), which is based at the Digital Science Center. “Marvin embodies our commitment to making high-performance computing truly usable in research. The fact that Bonn will continue to be a university of excellence demonstrates the enormous potential here, and we are pleased to contribute our part,” explained Prof. Dr. Petra Mutzel, head of the HPC/A-Lab. “The projects presented today impressively demonstrate the scientific potential inherent in this infrastructure.”
Marvin plays an important role, for example, in the transdisciplinary research area of TRA Modelling. This research network combines mathematical and computational methods with applications across numerous disciplines, ranging from the life sciences to medicine, the geosciences, and economics. The spokesperson for TRA Modelling, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Gall, explained: “The questions that researchers in TRA Modelling address often concern complex systems with many interacting components. To understand such systems, modeling, simulation, and high-performance computing are indispensable. Marvin is therefore a central component for many projects in TRA.” A look at last year’s event demonstrates that such transdisciplinary research approaches are being specifically and successfully funded: The Polyglot project received financial support from TRA Sustainable Futures and, thanks to the computing time it secured, was able to develop one of the leading language models for Portuguese.
Supercomputer Marvin: Facts and Figures
With 320 NVIDIA GPUs, 18,400 CPU cores, and a connected load of 430 kW, Marvin ranks among Germany’s most powerful academic supercomputers. Two-thirds of its capacity is specifically optimized for machine learning and AI applications—a unique selling point in the university setting. Since its commissioning on March 11, 2024, the HRZ HPC team has already supported 675 registered users from 183 research groups on Marvin. During this time, team members processed over 1,900 support requests and conducted a total of 70 workshops (as of the end of 2025). Read more about Marvin.
Contact for Media
Prof. Dr. Petra Mutzel (HPC/A-Lab) for scientific requests:
Lead High Performance Computing and Analytics Lab
Tel.: +49 (228) 73-69917
E-Mail: pmutzel@uni-bonn.de
Dr. Dirk Barbi (HPC/HRZ) for technical requests:
Team-lead HPC
Tel: +49 (0)228 73-66136
E-Mail: dbarbi@uni-bonn.de
