Below we hear from the Beariables team in their own words about their experience going to Computing Insight UK and winning the national cluster challenge. Authors: Team Beariables – Harry Vicaradge, Jamie Cline, Ewan Hallatt, Sereya Mee, Adam Wilson and Arthur Baverstock In December, our team the Beariables🧸 attended the Computing Insight UK Conference, where … Continue reading “Students’ journey from HPC newcomers to international competitors”
Category: BEAR Challenge
From BEAR Challenge to research innovation: A student’s journey into HPC
We previously heard from several participants of BEAR Challenge 2025 how they had enjoyed attending the event and the skills they developed (see blog post here), with one team going onto win the national CIUK challenge. In this blog post, we hear from undergraduate student David Adesoye-Amoo on how the challenge helped him navigate a … Continue reading “From BEAR Challenge to research innovation: A student’s journey into HPC”
Team of undergraduate students wins national computing challenge!
We were so thrilled to hear that team ‘Beariables’ have won the national supercomputing challenge at Computing Insight UK (CIUK2025)! The team of undergraduate students from the University of Birmingham are studying for degrees in the School of Physics & Astronomy, and the School of Computer Science, and competed against 16 other teams from institutions … Continue reading “Team of undergraduate students wins national computing challenge!”
BEAR Challenge 2025
Over the three days of 24-26 June, we welcomed 90 undergraduate and postgraduate taught students to #BEARChallenge2025. In an attempt to meet demand for places, this year we expanded to allow 15 teams but demand also rose at a pace, with 31 teams registering their interest! It is great to see the level of interest … Continue reading “BEAR Challenge 2025”
BEAR Challenge student teams compete in national Cluster Challenge
Two of the top-performing student teams from BEAR Challenge 2024 have gone onto compete in a national student cluster challenge. Online challenges began in October and culminated in three days of in-person activities in Manchester, where they competed with 14 other teams from universities across the UK at Computing Insight UK (CIUK). From the start … Continue reading “BEAR Challenge student teams compete in national Cluster Challenge”
Reflections on the BEAR Challenge 2024
In this blog post, we hear from Ivan Korniichuk, a member of the third-placed team in BEAR Challenge 2024, who gives his perspective on the recent event. I am delighted to announce that our team “return -1” achieved 3rd place in the BEAR Challenge 2024! Participating in this intensive three-day event at the University of … Continue reading “Reflections on the BEAR Challenge 2024”
BEAR Challenge 2024
We welcomed 50 undergraduate and postgraduate taught students to the 5th BEAR Challenge (#BEARChallenge2024), held over 24-26 June, 2024. Due to room constraints, we could only fit in 10 teams, so unfortunately had to turn away over 50 additional students who had applied. This year, we welcomed teams with students from Computer Science, Physics, Philosophy, … Continue reading “BEAR Challenge 2024”
BEAR Challenge 2023: A whirlwind of GPUs, AI, pizza and future prospects
The BEAR Challenge 2023 was an exciting three day event that allowed students to access a national Tier 2 supercomputer – the Baskerville High-Performance Computing (HPC) system, as well as hearing about careers in the area from leading industry specialists. Students tackled real-world problems in Artificial Intelligence (AI) using Baskerville’s GPUs. Pros.pro BEAR Challenge team … Continue reading “BEAR Challenge 2023: A whirlwind of GPUs, AI, pizza and future prospects”
BEAR Challenge 2023
“The event was fun, challenging, and insightful. The best part was that it gave me an opportunity to work and learn something new with my friends. Thank you, team!” This is a quote from one of the participants who attended the BEAR Challenge held between 19th-21st June. The aim of the challenge is to introduce … Continue reading “BEAR Challenge 2023”
Bringing to BEAR – Creating a Challenge for the BEAR Challenge
This year June came around again and it’s BEAR Challenge time! This is an event we hold every year to try and introduce University of Birmingham undergraduates and masters’ students to the world of High-Performance Computing (HPC). This year we attracted ten groups of students from across the university from computer science, physics, maths, and … Continue reading “Bringing to BEAR – Creating a Challenge for the BEAR Challenge”