This month we cover lots of past and future events, with blog posts on the BEAR Conference and Baskerville Showcase, together with details on a session at the Postgraduate Research Festival and the BioFAIR Roadshow. We also have some articles on life within the Advanced Research Computing team, to give you an insight into our roles. Read on to find out more!
Included in this month’s BEAR newsletter:
- News from the Advanced Research Computing team
- PG Research Festival – BEAR and open research sessions for PGRs
- New BEAR training dates
- BioFAIR Roadshow
- Reflections on the BEAR Conference
- Baskerville Showcase summary
- Case study on using BlueBEAR to study wind engineering
- BEAR drop-in sessions
News from the Advanced Research Computing team
The Advanced Research Computing section within IT Services provide BEAR services for researchers. The team is split into three groups and back in May, the Research Software Group (RSG) held a two-week hackathon to spend time working on various projects and challenges together to improve workflows and services, as well as allowing the rapidly growing team time to collaborate with each other – find out more in the BEAR RSG Hackathon 2024 blog post. Warrick Ball is a Senior Research Software Engineer and Manager in the RSG and he gives his perspective on ‘just about and “managing” in the RSE world’.
In the Researcher Engagement and Data Group, we hosted two work experience students in May and their blog post on their week of work experience gives an insight into the varied areas of research that we support at the University.
PG Research Festival – BEAR and open research sessions for PGRs
The University Graduate School is holding its annual Postgraduate Research Festival next Tuesday and Wednesday – 18-19 June. At 2.00-2.30pm on Tuesday, the BEAR team will be giving a talk with some of our BEAR Champions on how researchers can collaborate using BEAR services. The Research Skills Team from Library Services will also be covering ‘Open Research and You’ between 2.30-3.30pm on the same day. For more information and to register, see the PG Research Festival Eventbrite booking page.
New BEAR training dates
We have some new training dates scheduled for July, including Python, MATLAB, Git, Introduction to Linux, and BlueBEAR. Several of these courses are being delivered online to provide more flexibility for researchers. For more information and to sign up, see our training webpages.
BioFAIR Roadshow
Researchers in the life sciences are invited to attend and participate in the rescheduled BioFAIR Roadshow on Monday 24 June, between 1.00-4.00pm in Elm House. The UKRI-funded BioFAIR project launches this summer and is aimed at creating a federated digital research infrastructure, connecting existing life sciences resources. Attendees will learn more about the project, shape the direction of the community-guided project, and hear from local speakers Dr Ralf Weber (School of Biosciences), Dr Karin Slater (Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences), and Dr Stephanie Thompson (Advanced Research Computing). For more information and to register, see the BioFAIR Eventbrite booking page.
Reflections on the BEAR Conference
Bioinformatics MSc student, Dr Josephine Bates, has written an excellent summary of the BEAR Conference held back in April, reflecting on her experience of attending the conference. You can read more in her blog post, reflecting on the BEAR Conference 2024. We are currently looking for PGR students and post-docs to join the organising committee for the next BEAR Conference in 2025, if you’re interested then please email us at bearinfo@contacts.bham.ac.uk
Baskerville Showcase summary
On the 18 April, we welcomed attendees from across the country and overseas to The Exchange in Birmingham, to hear about the varied research that has been enabled by Baskerville, the Tier 2 national supercomputer hosted at the University and ranked 447thin the Top500 supercomputers. You can read a summary of the event in the Baskerville Showcase blog post.
Case study on using BlueBEAR to study wind engineering
In this month’s featured case study, Jose Romero (PhD student in Civil Engineering) explains how he has used our supercomputer BlueBEAR to predict wind patterns around high-rise buildings. Through using BlueBEAR, he has cut simulation times from months to hours, aiding urban planning and safety. Have a read of Jose’s case study to find out more.
BEAR drop-in sessions
We currently just have dates for virtual drop-in sessions but are trying to schedule in-person drop-ins for the coming months – check the drop-in webpage for updates, as well as details on how to join the virtual sessions. Currently scheduled dates are also listed below:
- Via Zoom – Thursday 20 June, 1.00pm-2.00pm
- Via Zoom – Monday 1 July, 11.00am-12.00pm
Missed last month’s newsletter?
Find May’s newsletter here. Sign up to receive the newsletter direct to your inbox by joining our bear-updates mailing list here (UoB login required), or ask to join via email at bearinfo@contacts.bham.ac.uk