Engineering Thesis by Taras Zhyhulin Highlighted in National PTI Competition

We warmly congratulate Taras Zhyhulin on receiving a distinction in the prestigious PTI national competition for his outstanding engineering thesis.

We are pleased to share that Taras Zhyhulin has received a distinction in the 5th National Competition of the Polish Information Processing Society (PTI) for his engineering diploma thesis titled Integration of High-Performance Computing Simulation Platform with Data Sharing Repositories.

His work addresses a key challenge in scientific computing: bridging high-performance simulations with efficient data-sharing infrastructures. The project explores the integration of HPC environments with data repositories to facilitate collaboration and reproducibility—an important step in advancing computational medicine. Additionally, it introduces the Sano Dataverse as a platform for internal data sharing and publication at Sano, and proposes a rule-based data-sharing strategy designed to encourage the research community to contribute to datasets after their publication.

In his own words, Taras summarizes the rationale, challenges, and solutions explored in his thesis as follows: “The rapidly evolving field of in-silico medicine—at the intersection of information technology and healthcare—relies increasingly on the concept of the Virtual Human Twin. Running simulations on such complex models demands significant computational resources, a need well-addressed by high-performance computing (HPC). However, utilizing HPC often requires advanced technical expertise, which not all researchers may possess. In addition, data-related challenges such as security, access control within research teams, and the proper aggregation and dissemination of results remain significant. Ultimately, to align with the principles of Open Science, research outputs should be openly shared at the end of the process.

Open Science is gaining traction across the global research community. In the context of data sharing, this involves compliance with the FAIR principles—ensuring that data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. A key enabler of these principles is the use of data-sharing repositories, which facilitate transparent and convenient storage, provide persistent identifiers for citation, and offer integration with various scientific tools—dramatically improving the ability to collaborate and reproduce results.

These needs underscore the importance of developing specialized tools to streamline data handling throughout the research lifecycle. Although user-friendly platforms exist to help scientists execute simulations and manage workflows, they often lack built-in integration with open-source data repositories. This integration is essential for enabling secure, bidirectional data exchange during scientific workflows and for supporting seamless collaboration within research groups.

This thesis addresses that gap by developing an integrated system that connects a simulation platform for in-silico medical research with open-source data-sharing repositories. An instance of such a repository was deployed, configured, and tested to support internal and cross-team collaboration at Sano. The thesis also outlines data-sharing practices designed to incentivize researchers to contribute and engage with shared datasets. Together, the platform integration, repository instance, and support practices form a comprehensive toolkit that advances the infrastructure for open, collaborative science in the domain of in-silico medicine.”

The thesis was supervised by Professor Bartłomiej Śnieżyński (AGH University of Science and Technology), who collaborates closely with the Sano Centre for Computational Medicine. Special thanks also go to Piotr Nowakowski, a member of Sano’s Scientific Programmers Team, who provided mentorship and guidance throughout the project.

This recognition is not only a personal success for Taras but also a testament to the value of investing in young talent at the intersection of engineering, medicine, and computing.

Mr Wiesław Paluszyński, President of the Polish Information Society (PTI) awards Taras Zhyhulin the distinction in the 5th Engineering Works Competition organised by PTI.