Detailed agenda
This agenda is subject to change.
An overview and summary is available.
Monday (PM): The Net Zero Challenge
Monday 13:00 - Welcome, introduction and aims
Get to know the team and participants, and work out what is going on!
Monday 13:30 - Keynote: Introducing the Net Zero challenge, Stuart Basden (co-founder XR, climate activist)
Stuart Basden, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion (XR) will present recent climate research and planetary heating trajectories. Drawing from XR’s origins - including the 2018-2019 London bridge blockades - he will discuss raising awareness about climate change and democracy. Basden will compare our current mass extinction event to historical ones like the Permian, then address the emotional toll of climate change, creatig space for participants to process what they have heard and reflect on life’s interconnectedness.
XR is a global environmental movement using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid climate tipping points.
Monday 14:00 - Facilitation session
A group workshop to break the ice between participants and start people thinking about Net Zero, and the impact they can have.
Monday 14:30 - Break
Monday 15:00 - Facilitation session
Continued
Monday 15:30 - Talk: Net Zero from a DRI context, Martin Farley (UKRI)
Placing Digital Research Infrastructure into the Net-Zero context. An introduction to the UK’s Digital Research Infrastructure, discussing embodied carbon, power consumption and related carbon emissions. The need for science outputs and research impact, and making the most of facilities are discussed.
Monday 16:00 - Break
Monday 16:30 - Storytelling workshop - Begin at the beginning - What’s your story?, Erinma Ochu (UWE, Bristol)
Change starts with knowing your own story. Across two facilitated sessions, participants will be introduced to storytelling as a tool for imagining positive environmental change linked to the sustainable computing agenda.
Participants will learn and apply storytelling techniques to focus on how underlying beliefs can shape sustainability mindsets and research culture. Participants will begin to develop their own story of how they arrived at sustainable computing, identify and reframe limiting beliefs that might hold them back, and strengthening their ability to communicate why this work matters to them. Participants will also engage with stories from the NetDRIVE community, including NetDRIVE Principle Investigator, Martin Juckes and NetDRIVE Champion, Kirsty Pringle.
By the end of these sessions, participants will have developed the foundations of their own story.
Dr Erinma Ochu is NetDRIVE storytelling champion and Wallscourt Associate Professor of Immersive Media at UWE Bristol. Trained as a biologist and storyteller, their practice-based research explores collective consciousness, memory, and environmental action through creative and participatory storytelling methods. They have a background in film and TV, held fellowships with NESTA and Wellcome, and currently serve as Watershed’s Researcher in Residence and as co-editor of book series, Digital Materialities and Sustainable Futures.
Rosie Stanbury supports people to develop their ideas and themselves. She works as an engagement strategist, facilitator and coach with particular expertise in interdisciplinary practice. She spent almost 17 years at Wellcome, Europe’s largest global health foundation, where she was on the senior leadership team - leading creative teams for Wellcome Collection. She is Vice Chair of English Touring Theatre and a Trustee of SICK! Productions.
Monday 18:00 - Evening activity: Climate board games and quiz
Enjoy some food while taking part in some board games and a quiz.
Tuesday (AM): The role of software
Tuesday 09:00 - HPC Days joint session: Node level performance optimisation, Thomas Gruber (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität)
This joint HPC Days session will give an overview of how to get the best performance from hardware.
Tuesday 10:30 - Break
Tuesday 11:00 - Keynote: GreenDisk, Loic Lannelongue (Cambridge University)
An introduction to the GreenDisk certification scheme, appropriate for everything from labs to national HPC facilities.
This session explores evaluation of codes, and introduces the GreenDisk scheme, which can be applied to any DRI infrastructure from small research labs with one or two servers, up to the largest HPC facilities.
Tuesday 11:25 - Talk: Sustainable computing in the research lifecycle, Liz Ing-Simmons (Edinburgh University)
Computational research impacts the environment in multiple ways, and therefore there are many possible actions researchers can take to reduce their environmental impact. This talk will give an overview of some of these practical actions, with an emphasis on actions relevant to data analysis and developing efficient software. It will place these actions in the context of the lifecycle of a research project, from planning, to implementation, and eventual publication. Attendees will be encouraged to think about which actions are most relevant to their current project and phase of work, and how they could implement these into their research workflow.
Tuesday 12:00 - Lunch
Tuesday (PM): Telling a story
Tuesday 13:00 - HPC Days joint session: Node level performance optimisation, Thomas Gruber (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität)
Continuing the HPC Days session around code optimisation.
Tuesday 14:30 - Break
Tuesday 15:00 - Storytelling, Erinma Ochu (UWE, Bristol) and Martin Jukes (Oxford University)
Continuing the storytelling session, focusing on how to make yourself heard, helping to draw together knowledge gained from the summer school.
Tuesday 16:00 - Break
Tuesday 16:30 - Practical: Sustainability, Kirsty Pringle (EPCC)
A session around sustainability.
Tuesday 18:00 - Evening activity: Ceilidh
Dance the evening away!
Wednesday (AM): Large facilities
Wednesday 09:00 - Talk: Societal, environmental and economic benefits verses environmental cost and CO2 offsetting, Martin Juckes (Oxford University)
The balance between science and research outputs, and the environmental cost of HPC can be difficult to achieve, or even determine. This talk will discuss the societal considerations, the economic benefits of more compute verses the environmental cost, and how we should think about this topic.
Wednesday 09:25 - Talk: CEDA, the CEDA Archive and its role in the NERC Environmental Data Service, Alison Pamment (JASMIN, STFC)
The mission of the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) is to provide data and information services for environmental science: this includes curation of scientifically important environmental data for the long term, facilitation of the use of data by the environmental science community, and the operation of data infrastructure needed to support those activities. CEDA is a team of specialists with expertise spanning data management and informatics, research software engineering and digital research infrastructure engineering. It operates the CEDA Archive, a major component of the NERC Environmental Data Service, which brings together data spanning environmental science disciplines into a single service commissioned by NERC as a National Capability. CEDA also undertakes project work for a range of national and international funders, and provides the user-facing service of JASMIN, the UK’s data analysis facility for environmental science, in which the CEDA Archive is hosted.
Wednesday 09:25 - Talk: JASMIN: the UK’s environmental data analysis facility, Matt Pritchard (JASMIN, STFC)
JASMIN is a Digital Research Infrastructure designed to enable the environmental science community to come together, collaborate and work efficiently on large, data-intensive projects that tackle some of today’s most challenging questions. It provides large-scale analysis compute co-located with curated environmental datasets and flexible workspace storage, along with technologies, tools and expertise to help scientists work effectively at scale and across disciplines. It is designed and operated by STFC on behalf of NERC. This talk will give a brief overview of JASMIN’s role, structure and services.
Wednesday 10:10 - Talk: Queen Mary data centre case study, Alex Owen (Queen Mary University London)
The QMUL data centre, which includes heat reuse, is presented.
Wednesday 10:30 - Break
Wednesday 11:00 - Talk: Sustainable data centres and the ACF, Lorna Smith (EPCC)
Data centres are not usually associated with sustainability. This talk presents ways in which the situation can be improced, and the Advanced Compute Facility at Edinburgh University is given as an example.
Wednesday 11:15 - Talk: Heat storage and reuse, Alastair Basden (Durham)
Efforts to reuse and store waste HPC heat are presented.
Wednesday 11:30 - Poster preparation session
Continue working on posters
Wednesday 12:00 - Lunch
Wednesday (PM): Certification, software and choice
Wednesday 13:00 - Tour: The DiRAC Machine Room
A tour of the DiRAC@Durham Machine Room which hosts the COSMA HPC facility and the HPC Hardware Lab. The Machine Room is located approximately 5 minutes walk from the summer school venue.
Wednesday 13:45 Practical: Environmental impact mapping, Marcia Smith (Lancaster), Kirsty Blair (UKCEH)
In this session, we will map the socio-environmental impacts of Digital Research Infrastructures. In groups, participants will draw from their own research experiences. We will use the Rebound Archetypes Cards to guide us to think systemically about the impacts and their potential consequences.
Wednesday 14:30 - Break
Wednesday 15:00 - (continued) Practical: Environmental impact mapping, Marcia Smith (Lancaster)
Continued…
Wednesday 15:30 - Engagement: Planning public engagement materials and activities, Lorna Smith (EPCC)
Public engagement around Net-Zero is becoming increasingly important, and this session seeks to describe ways in which public engagement activities can help with this.
Wednesday 16:00 - Break
Wednesday 16:30 - HPC Days Scavenger hunt
Join the popular scavenger hunt, with prizes at stake!
Wednesday 18:00 - Evening activity: Botanic garden tour
Take a relaxing tour around the Botanic Garden.
Thursday (AM): Green HPC
Thursday 09:00 - Responsible computing plans, Andy Turner (EPCC)
This session will introduce the concept of a responsible computing plan for HPC use and the practical actions you can take to reduce emissions from your use of HPC. It will cover different stages of the project from planning, data management, actions during the project, to finishing the project well.
Thursday 10:30 - Break
Thursday 11:00 - HPC Days joint session: Green Software use on HPC, Andy Turner (EPCC)
This session will give a taster of the Green Software Use on HPC course that is part of the Carpentries Incubator and HPC Carpentry. This course provides an introduction to environmental sustainability in the context of HPC, covering sources of emissions, carbon awareness, and measuring and monitoring emissions from use of HPC. The course is designed to be accessible to all stakeholders in HPC - from people who procure HPC services, operators and users.
Thursday 12:00 - Lunch
Thursday (PM): Data, markets and monitoring
Thursday 13:00 - Practical: FAIR data management and sustainability on JASMIN, and poster preparation, Fatima Chami (JASMIN)
A practical session in data management using the JASMIN HPC facility.
Thursday 13:30 - Case study: My route to becoming a sustainability champion, Jessica Huntley (STFC)
In this session I will outline my journey to becoming a sustainability champion, beginning with the establishment of a departmental green group, which I set up in 2022 whilst on the graduate scheme at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). I’ll reflect on how the group has grown in both size and influence over the years, and share some insights into engaging colleagues, raising awareness, and sustaining momentum. The talk will also explore my experience of advocating for dedicated time to work on sustainable computing initiatives, and how this led to securing funding and becoming a NetDRIVE champion.
Thursday 14:00 - Poster preparation
The final poster preparation session!
Thursday 14:30 - Break
Thursday 15:00 - Keynote: Energy markets, external pressures, politics and funding, Michael Rudyard (NetDRIVE champion)
There are many external pressures on HPC and AI systems, which only grow as the size of these systems increase. This talk will discuss energy markets, politics and funding, and the impact that these can have on Net-Zero goals.
Thursday 15:30 - Keynote: Monitoring and estimating emissions in your workflow, Alex Owen (Queen Mary University London)
This session will present some of the tools needed to determine emissions corresponding to different jobs and workloads. Most large HPC facilities will have ways in which the energy consumed by jobs can be estimated and reported, with direct calculation of carbon emissions then possible.
Thursday 16:00 - Break
Thursday 16:30 - Engagement: Lifestyle choices, the three Rs, Lorna Smith, Fatima Chami, Alastair Basden (Edinburgh, STFC, Durham)
How can you make life style choices to reduce your environmental impact? This session provides some ideas, and leads you though ways of thinking about this.
Thursday 17:00 - Practical: Laptop and server repair
Gain experience and confidence in repairing hardware, to length lifetime and reduce embodied carbon.
Friday (AM): Advocating for change
Friday 09:00 - Keynote: Making the Case for Sufficiency: Cross-case study lessons, Carolynne Lord (UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology)
Efficiency has long been considered key in increasing the sustainability of technologies and digital infrastructures. However, what is often seen with such measures is that they simultaneously make systems cheaper, quicker, and increase their capacity: leading to an increase in demand, and an associated energy cost. It is important, therefore, that we begin to understand how we might hold patterns of demand still, to fully capitalise on efficiency gains. Sufficiency (i.e., a concept of ‘enoughness’) is being increasingly explored in other sustainability domains, but what would this look like in the context of DRI? This presentation shares the lessons learnt about waste from two separate case studies of DRI systems – one relating to HPC systems, and the second about the use and development of a process-based model. By reflecting on these lessons, this presentation aims to explore how we can move from the idea that in dividuals are responsible for tackling waste (i.e., individual behaviour change), to a system that promotes and encourages sufficiency in use and provision (i.e., sufficiency governance).
Friday 09:30 - Practical: ARCHER2 monitoring, Lorna Smith (EPCC)
A practical session looking at monitoring carbon emissions on the ARCHER2 HPC system.
Friday 10:30 - Break and poster session
A poster session, presenting posters to HPC Days attendees and getting feedback.
Friday 11:00 - Activity: Design a DRI facility, Alastair Basden (Durham)
A fun session focused around designing a new Digital Research Infrastructure facility as a team, while meeting certain criteria.
Friday 11:30 - Closing session: Creating a plan and feedback, Lorna, Alastair, Fatima
The grand finale, a session devoted to creating an action plan related to your own research, looking at future opportunities to engage with the DRI, and feeding back the summer school experience.