Digital Research Infrastructure

The UK Centre of Excellence for the Characterisation and Co-Design of Systems, Hardware and Enabling Software

Convener: Jeremy Yates, Alastair Basden Slot: Wednesday, 15:30-16:15
Location: MCS 3052

Large-scale compute, including HPC, has previously often been treated as “buy-and-forget”; once a system has been purchased and installed, it remains relatively static throughout its life with few, if any, tweaks made. However this does not deliver the most cost effective service, and this session explores how scientific output capability can be improved using a continuous improvement process with these systems, dynamically adapting and characterising them to suit ever-changing workloads and demands.

The initial design of these systems is also key to maximising the return on investment. Having an up-to-date knowledge on new and novel technologies allows for insightful design of new large-scale compute systems. A UK Centre of Excellence for the characterisation and co-design of systems, hardware and enabling software is therefore required to ensure that informed decisions can be made.

This session describes the progress made towards such a Centre of Excellence.

Note: There’s an internal preparation meeting on Wednesday, 11:00-12:30. It is by invitation only.

Thursday

Supporting digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTPs): Projects, opportunities and challenges

Convener: Weronika Filinger (EPCC)
Slot: Thursday, 11:00-12:30
Location: MCS0001

Session description:

UKRI’s Digital Research Infrastructure programme is supporting a range of projects to make a fundamental difference to the way that we train, support and enable career opportunities for digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTPs). dRTPs are the people who work with research software, research data and research computing infrastructure. This session will highlight the recently completed UNIVERSE-HPC project and a set of new projects taking forward a range of work in the dRTP and Digital Research Infrastructure space. There will be presentations from two Network+ projects (CHARTED and SCALE-UP), and from other three projects: STEP-UP, DRIFT and CCP-AHC. DRIFT is focused on the training for research facilitators and teams, and CCP-AHC is an effort to scope and establish a new community around codes, pipelines, and workflows that support computationally intensive research in the arts, humanities, and culture domain. After hearing from project representatives, there will be time for general discussion around opportunities and challenges for the future of Digital Research Infrastructure.

Presenters:

  • UNIVERSE-HPC - Neil Chue Hong, EPCC, The University of Edinburgh

  • CHARTED & DRIFT - Weronika Filinger, EPCC, The University of Edinburgh

  • STEP-UP & SCALE-UP - Jeremy Cohen, Imperial College London

  • CCP-AHC - Eamonn Bell, Durham University

Keynote: The UK’s Digital Research Infrastructure

Presenter: Afia Masood (UKRI)
Slot: Thursday, 13:30-14:00
Location: MCS0001

Abstract: This talk will give an overview of the UK’s DRI programme, its ambition and grants funded so far.

Kick-off: The UK’s Knowledge Exchange Grant and Accelerate Computing initiatives

Convener: Helen Cooper, Nick Brown, Tobias Weinzierl
Slot: Thursday, 14:00-15:00
Location: MCS0001

Abstract: In this session, we will introduce new newly established Knowledge Exchange DRI grant, as well as the two DRI accelerate computing grants.

14:00-14:30 Short pitches of the three DRI projects 14:30-15:00 The big slido show: What do you expect the projects to deliver to your work?