Today, innovation in materials is more crucial than ever. It must not only be efficient and design-oriented, but also environmentally friendly, while conserving both energy and resources. The European epitaxy community stands at a pivotal moment. Global challenges—ranging from sustainability and renewable energy production to information security, Smart Cities, quantum technologies, and the Internet of Things—require new technological solutions, many of which depend on advanced epitaxial materials. Meeting these demands hinges on our ability to understand and simulate the properties of epitaxial materials as accurately as possible, down to the atomic scale.

The training school, co-organized by GDR Matepi and the EU COST Action OPERA, aims to provide practical simulation tools to non-expert students—particularly PhD candidates—working in the development of epitaxial materials. Its objective is to foster breakthroughs in complex material systems, advance experimental and theoretical approaches for the maturation of epitaxial growth, and explore new functionalities for next-generation devices.

The schoool topics will cover : 

• 1 – Crystal analysis & visualization. 
• 2 – Density Functional Theory
• 3 – Molecular Dynamics
• 4 – Monte-Carlo simulations. 
• 5 – Introduction to Machine learning

The training school will span five days, from Monday to Friday, and will be hosted at the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) in Rennes, France. The institute will provide access to its state-of-the-art computer labs and facilities dedicated to student training. Throughout the week, 60 students—divided into small groups—will participate in various sessions covering the different topics of the program. Each session will include a brief theoretical introduction—designed especially for beginners—followed by practical case studies to solve. The sessions will be led by European experts in the field, with technical support provided by the host institution, INSA. Each student will have access to an individual computer to carry out hands-on exercises during the sessions.

• A. Hemerick, Research Director at LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse (France)
• L. Pedesseau, Associate Professor at Institut FOTON, INSA Rennes (France)
• A. Pimpinelli, Professor at Université Clermont-Auvergne (France) and Rice University (USA)
• O. Pierre-Louis, Research Director at ILM-CNRS, Lyon (France)
• J.-N. Aqua, Professor at Sorbonne Université (France)
• M. Amato, Associate Professor at LPS, Univerversité Paris-Saclay (France)
• L. Pizzagalli, Research Director at Institut P'-CNRS, Univ. Poitiers (France)
• and many more to come ...